President Donald Trump said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is working to bring Hyperliquid, an onchain perpetual futures platform, into the United States through a “fully compliant and legal” framework, putting one of crypto’s largest decentralized derivatives venues at the center of Washington’s market-structure debate.
Speaking at a Wednesday press conference with technology executives and federal agency leaders, Trump said CFTC Chair Michael Selig is involved in efforts to bring perpetual futures markets onshore. HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token, rose 17% over the following 24 hours, while several publicly traded products and companies tied to the network also posted sharp gains.
The remarks offer the clearest public indication yet that the administration is considering a regulatory route for decentralized, always-open derivatives markets rather than treating them solely as offshore platforms beyond the reach of US rules. Any US arrangement would need to address registration, surveillance, customer protections and the treatment of a trading system that operates through smart contracts rather than a conventional exchange operator.
Perpetual futures move into the policy spotlight
Perpetual futures, commonly called perps, are contracts that allow traders to take long or short positions on an asset’s price without owning the underlying asset. Unlike traditional futures, they do not have a fixed settlement date. Funding payments between long and short positions are generally used to keep a contract’s price close to the underlying market.
That structure has made perpetual futures central to crypto trading outside the United States, where participants can trade around the clock and gain exposure to digital assets, commodities and other markets. Hyperliquid has become one of the sector’s most visible platforms by offering an onchain venue designed for rapid order execution.
Trump specifically linked the CFTC’s work to bringing these markets inside a legal US framework. The comments came during a gathering attended by Selig, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins, Nasdaq Chief Executive Adena Friedman, Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev and Intercontinental Exchange Chief Executive Jeffrey Sprecher, among other market-structure and cryptocurrency executives.
Trump later invited participants to the Oval Office following the conference, underlining how closely cryptocurrency market rules have become tied to the administration’s legislative and financial-policy agenda.
A potential route beyond offshore trading
The CFTC has already permitted certain US-listed bitcoin perpetual futures products. Agency staff previously cleared KalshiEX, LLC and Coinbase to list bitcoin perpetual futures contracts, creating a precedent for regulated products that use the no-expiration structure popularized by offshore crypto venues.
A path for Hyperliquid would raise more complicated questions. Bitcoin perpetuals listed by US-regulated entities can operate within familiar clearing, reporting and oversight structures. Hyperliquid’s model relies on blockchain-based infrastructure, with trading and settlement connected to its network rather than confined to a conventional exchange’s proprietary systems.
In a June interview with Bankless, Selig said onchain market technology would “transform our markets” and described work toward a regulatory path for onchain venues to operate in the US. His participation in Wednesday’s event suggests that discussion has moved beyond general statements about blockchain innovation and toward specific market infrastructure.
The CFTC’s role is particularly relevant because perpetual futures are derivatives products. A compliant US structure could require rules around market monitoring, margin, liquidations, customer identification and the handling of assets that can be traded at all hours, including when the underlying cash market is closed.
Hyperliquid and similar platforms have attracted users partly because of that continuous access. A trader seeking exposure to oil, for example, can trade a crypto-based perpetual contract outside the regular hours of traditional commodity exchanges. That convenience also complicates oversight when prices can move in one venue while related reference markets are closed or less liquid.
Incumbent exchanges have raised benchmark concerns
Established exchange groups, including CME Group and ICE, have warned that less regulated perpetual platforms could be used to manipulate prices or influence market benchmarks. Their concerns focus on whether activity on always-open venues can spill into reference prices used by futures, exchange-traded products and other financial contracts.
Those objections place the CFTC in a difficult position. The agency would need to decide whether a decentralized venue can meet standards designed around identifiable operators, market surveillance staff and regulated clearing arrangements, while also ensuring that its trading activity does not weaken confidence in commodity and securities benchmarks.
The administration’s apparent willingness to explore a compliant framework does not itself authorize Hyperliquid to serve US participants. Registration and product approvals would remain subject to the CFTC’s processes and the legal design of any platform seeking to operate domestically. But Trump’s intervention gives the issue a higher political profile than the technical rulemaking discussions that have largely shaped onchain derivatives policy so far.
HYPE and related products rally
HYPE traded higher after Trump’s comments, gaining 17% over 24 hours. The token’s price reached about $71, roughly $5 below its early-June record high, according to the figures provided.
Exchange-traded products associated with Hyperliquid also advanced during Wednesday’s session. The 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF, trading under THYP, the Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF, BHYP, and the Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF, HYPG, each rose by nearly 20%. Nasdaq-listed Hyperliquid Strategies, which trades under the ticker PURR, gained 30.4% on the day.
Hyperliquid said its platform processed $633 billion in trading volume during the first quarter of 2026 and accounts for roughly 32% of global onchain perpetual futures activity. The network’s total value locked recently exceeded $6.1 billion, while HYPE’s circulating market capitalization stood near $13.8 billion, according to the platform figures cited in the announcement.
The scale of those numbers helps explain why regulators and established exchanges are focusing on the sector. Onchain perpetuals have evolved from a niche crypto product into a market category large enough to draw attention from venues that dominate regulated futures trading.
Clarity act faces pressure in Congress
Trump also used the event to urge Congress to pass the Clarity Act, a federal cryptocurrency bill intended to establish a more comprehensive US regulatory framework. The measure has faced repeated setbacks and has limited time to move through Congress before the end of the year.
A legislative package could determine how authority is divided between the CFTC and SEC, a longstanding source of uncertainty for crypto companies offering tokens, trading services and financial products. It could also shape whether decentralized protocols can operate under rules that distinguish software infrastructure from firms that actively run a market or custody customer assets.
For Hyperliquid, the immediate question is whether the CFTC can construct a workable regulatory approach under its current authority, or whether a fuller US launch would depend on congressional action. Trump’s remarks place the platform within both tracks: agency-level work on derivatives oversight and a larger push to rewrite federal cryptocurrency rules.
Want deeper insight into perpetuals and regulation? Explore our guide on what are perpetuals and how they work.
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