Hyperliquid in Talks With Kraken Parent Payward for US Entry

Hyperliquid Labs is in advanced talks with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, over a route into the US market, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 31. The plan would not buy a licensed exchange outright: instead, Payward’s US-regulated derivatives venue Bitnomial would let registered American traders reach a subset of perpetual futures tied to tokens on Hyperliquid’s blockchain.

A structure already sent to the CFTC

Payward has submitted the structure to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, BeInCrypto reported, citing the Bloomberg story. A filing is not a clearance, and representatives of both Payward and Hyperliquid Labs declined to comment.

The arrangement builds on Payward’s May 1 acquisition of Bitnomial — a $550 million deal that delivered three CFTC licenses at once. Registered US traders would trade on Bitnomial under US rules, with identity checks and a limited menu of products, not the full offshore order book. The exotic markets built through Hyperliquid’s third-party framework sit outside the reported plan, as does offshore leverage. Hyperliquid’s own app would remain geoblocked for American users.

The political backdrop

The talks follow President Donald Trump’s Aug. 19 statement that regulators were working to bring Hyperliquid onshore. The venue has grown large without US participation: HYPE set a record of $86.71 on Aug. 27, and by Monday the token traded at $83.57, up 7.1% over the week, per BeInCrypto. Hyperliquid routes 99% of protocol and trading fees into repurchasing HYPE, an engine that has retired $1.3 billion of supply since December 2024.

Renting versus buying

The reported approach mirrors a wider pattern of offshore platforms renting US licenses rather than acquiring venues outright. Payward closed Bitnomial for $550 million; Polymarket paid $112 million for a licensed venue of its own. Renting costs Hyperliquid far less upfront. The trade-off is control: Payward would own the licensed venue and the registered customer relationship.

What the headlines do not tell you

Access and product are different things. US traders would reach a subset of perps under CFTC rules, not the full Hyperliquid experience, and whether volume cleared on Bitnomial would ever flow into the HYPE buyback has not been described. A flat licensing fee and a share of US trading revenue are very different outcomes for the token.

The takeaway

The Hyperliquid-Payward talks are the latest sign that offshore platforms see the US market as reachable through licensed intermediaries rather than through direct entry. The deal, if it clears regulatory review, will test how much of a venue’s economics survive the transition to a regulated wrapper.