Hyperliquid's U.S. perp path runs through Bitnomial

The reported talks between Hyperliquid Labs and Kraken's parent, Payward, would put Hyperliquid's order books on Bitnomial's licensed rails without placing Hyperliquid itself under a U.S. license. Bloomberg reported the discussions Aug. 31, citing people not authorized to discuss them, with a deal requiring regulatory sign-off and letting U.S. traders use Bitnomial for some perpetual futures tied to the prices of crypto tokens built on Hyperliquid's blockchain; representatives of both companies declined to comment to Bloomberg.

Bitnomial is the regulated center of the structure: Payward announced an agreement to acquire the exchange in April, Kraken said Bitnomial holds U.S. derivatives licenses covering an exchange, clearinghouse and brokerage, and the CFTC designated Bitnomial Exchange as a contract market in 2020. Kraken had already sketched the same arrangement in May, when it said CFTC-regulated perpetual futures would trade on Kraken Pro with contracts listed on Bitnomial and offered through NinjaTrader Clearing, doing business as Kraken Derivatives US, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant.

HIP-3, the unconfirmed piece, is Hyperliquid's system for permissionless, builder-deployed perpetual markets: public documentation requires a deployer to stake 500,000 HYPE and grants each exchange independent margining, order books and deployer settings. The Defiant's Shaunda Devens reported observing testnet features that resemble what a compliant deployer would need — wallet whitelisting, plus controls to cancel user orders, close positions and move collateral — and flagged one deployment named 'Kraken HIP-3 test DEX.' She cautioned that anyone can launch a testnet exchange under any name, and the observation does not confirm Kraken's involvement or tie HIP-3 to the Bloomberg-reported talks.

The Bloomberg report leaves open which products would list on Bitnomial and how a permissionless system would fit a DCM's rulebook. Hyperliquid's documentation frames HIP-3 as builder-deployed with independent margining, while Bitnomial operates under CFTC oversight — a gap regulators would have to close before U.S. traders get a Hyperliquid-linked perp.

That is the onshore path this publication has tracked since the White House backed the CFTC's effort to bring Hyperliquid onshore — executed through acquisition rather than registration. The open question is whether the CFTC can supervise a venue whose deployers set their own margin rules and can move collateral; staking 500,000 HYPE is not the governance the commission approved for Bitnomial in 2020. For Kraken, Bitnomial would be the regulated exchange that a permissionless venue operates through — a combination the CFTC has not yet blessed.