A First for US-Regulated On-Chain Derivatives
TREE NEWS reports: Payward, the parent company of Kraken, announced plans to deploy on-chain perpetual futures markets for US clients, starting with Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 builder-deployed markets. The move would make Payward the first US-registered exchange or clearinghouse to hold keys and assume regulatory obligations for a market on a decentralized perpetuals protocol.
The markets will run on Hyperliquid’s public blockchain, with its on-chain order book handling matching and recording. Bitnomial Exchange, a CFTC-regulated designated contract market, will act as the HIP-3 deployer, creating, owning and managing the market while clearing and settling contracts. NinjaTrader Clearing, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant, will carry client accounts. Access will be limited to accounts opened through NinjaTrader and whitelisted by both NinjaTrader and Bitnomial.
Why This Matters
Perpetual futures have traded outside the US since 2016, with global volumes exceeding $85 trillion in 2025 alone, yet US venues have largely been shut out. Hyperliquid has become the dominant on-chain venue, processing over $200 billion in the past 30 days and rated the most active on-chain perpetuals exchange of 2025. Bringing a regulated US clearinghouse into that ecosystem is a structural shift: it gives US users a compliant path to products that have been off-limits, and it tests whether decentralized infrastructure can accommodate regulated market structure.
The arrangement also creates a template. Payward says Hyperliquid is the first protocol it plans to deploy for US clients, with more products to follow through the same open infrastructure. By separating infrastructure from product interfaces and running a single liquidity pool, risk engine, collateral system and compliance framework, Payward aims to scale new offerings at low marginal cost.
The Competitive and Regulatory Calculus
- User choice: US traders gain access to a venue that has led on-chain perpetuals by volume and activity.
- Regulatory precedent: A CFTC-regulated DCM and clearinghouse taking deployer responsibility on a public blockchain is a meaningful test case for DeFi compliance.
- Competition: Incumbent US derivatives venues and offshore platforms may face pressure as a compliant on-chain option emerges.
Approval remains pending, and the whitelisting model means access will be gated rather than open. Still, the announcement signals that the boundary between decentralized protocols and regulated US market infrastructure is becoming more porous — and that the next phase of perpetuals competition may be fought on-chain, under US oversight.
