MarketsPayward is set to provide U.S. clients with access to onchain perpetual futures on the Hyperliquid platform, pending regulatory approval.

Following its $550 million acquisition of Bitnomial, Payward aims to be the first U.S. exchange to utilize the Hyperliquid protocol for trading.

By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Sheldon Reback24 min ago2 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on

Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that the firm intends to be the first registered U.S. exchange to launch perpetuals on Hyperliquid. (CoinDesk)
  • Payward intends to provide U.S. clients with access to perpetual futures on Hyperliquid’s public blockchain, contingent on regulatory approval.
  • The contracts will be facilitated under the CFTC-regulated Bitnomial Exchange, with NinjaTrader Clearing managing approved client accounts.
  • If the proposal is approved, it would introduce a sought-after onchain product within a regulated U.S. framework. Payward has not yet revealed a launch date, fee structure, or anticipated trading volume.

Recently, Payward announced its plans to enable U.S. clients to trade onchain perpetual futures markets. The firm, which is the parent company of the crypto exchange Kraken, aims to kick off with Hyperliquid HIP-3 markets, allowing third parties to create and manage their own permissioned perpetual futures markets.

Subject to regulatory clearance, these contracts will be listed according to the guidelines of Bitnomial Exchange, which operates under the oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

If granted approval, U.S. clients will be able to engage in trading new contracts created by Payward on Hyperliquid’s public blockchain. Clients will need to establish futures accounts with Payward’s broker, NinjaTrader Clearing, and both NinjaTrader and Bitnomial must approve these accounts.

Perpetual futures have predominantly been traded outside U.S. regulated markets since their introduction in 2016, with over $85 trillion exchanged globally in 2025, as reported by CoinGecko’s 2026 State of Crypto Perpetuals Report. Hyperliquid's decentralized exchange (DEX) accounts for approximately 9% of all open perpetual positions worldwide. The arrangement could also provide much-needed financial support for the project, which experienced a 43% drop in revenue in Q3 2025, totaling around $202 million in Q2 2026, according to data from DefiLlama.

The core of this initiative is Payward's intention to integrate a popular offshore and onchain trading product into a regulated U.S. environment while maintaining trade matching and record-keeping on Hyperliquid.

Jon Pham, head of U.S. derivatives, explained, "A U.S. client would open a futures account with Payward’s registered broker and trade new perpetual futures contracts on Hyperliquid, cleared through the same clearinghouse that already supports the crypto perpetual contracts Payward offers U.S. clients today."

In May, Payward acquired Bitnomial for $550 million and purchased NinjaTrader Clearing for $1.5 billion in 2025.

Perpetual contracts are derivative products that enable investors to speculate on the price fluctuations of an underlying digital asset without actually owning the asset. Unlike traditional futures contracts, perpetuals do not have an expiration date and can be held indefinitely. Traders must make periodic funding payments to maintain their positions.

The markets will operate on Hyperliquid's public blockchain, with its onchain order book facilitating trade matching and record-keeping. Bitnomial Exchange and Bitnomial Clearinghouse will serve as the HIP-3 deployer, managing the market, clearing, and settling contracts. NinjaTrader Clearing, Payward’s registered futures commission merchant, will handle client accounts.

Payward has not provided details on fees, expected trading volumes, the economic arrangement with Hyperliquid, or a prospective launch date. A representative from Kraken stated that they could not speculate on potential revenue from this initiative and did not address inquiries regarding anticipated trading volumes.

Hyperliquid was reached for a comment but had not responded by the time of publication.

For Hyperliquid, this proposed deployment could introduce a CFTC-regulated operator and a new source of U.S.-related activity to its platform. However, this does not imply that its current perpetual markets will be accessible to U.S. clients, and the companies did not clarify how revenue from the new markets would be shared.

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