Hyperliquid in Talks With Kraken Parent to Bring Crypto Perps to US Traders

Hyperliquid, the high-throughput layer-1 network built specifically for decentralized derivatives, is in advanced negotiations to bridge its offshore liquidity directly into U.S. markets. According to sources familiar with the matter, the protocol is working with Payward—the parent company of exchange giant Kraken—to route its perpetual futures contracts through Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated derivatives venue in which Payward holds a significant stake. If finalized, the architecture would mark Hyperliquid’s inaugural entry into the United States, granting domestic institutional and retail traders legal access to on-chain perpetual swaps for the first time. The timing reflects a dramatic pivot in Washington's digital asset posture. The negotiations come just weeks after President Donald Trump publicly indicated that his administration was actively pursuing mechanisms to bring offshore crypto infrastructure and liquidity back to American soil. By utilizing Bitnomial’s existing regulatory wrapper and clearing infrastructure, Hyperliquid effectively sidesteps the multi-year legal impasse that previously forced U.S. capital into restricted spot markets or complex offshore entities. The move signals a pragmatic hybrid model: off-chain regulatory compliance married to fully decentralized, on-chain execution. For institutional market makers and fund managers, the deal solves a persistent structural bottleneck. Hyperliquid has rapidly established dominance in the perpetuals market due to its custom, app-specific blockchain, which delivers sub-second settlement times and order-book matching without relying on centralized intermediaries. Unlocking compliant U.S. order flow is expected to spark a massive influx of capital into the protocol’s liquidity pools. Industry insiders suggest that this influx could fundamentally alter global crypto market dynamics, pulling institutional volume away from traditional offshore venues like Binance and Bybit toward transparent, on-chain execution. From a developer and protocol design perspective, the architecture sets a crucial blueprint for the future of decentralized finance. Rather than altering the underlying, trust-minimized smart contracts of the Hyperliquid L1, the integration offloads localized regulatory requirements—such as KYC, AML, and reporting—to Bitnomial’s gateway layer. This modular approach to legal compliance allows developers to build high-performance infrastructure without sacrificing decentralization or limiting their addressable market. If successful, the Payward-Bitnomial pathway will likely serve as the standard template for alternative application-specific blockchains looking to capture onshore U.S. liquidity. As regulatory walls fall, the divide between Wall Street's legacy derivatives infrastructure and native DeFi protocols is narrowing faster than most market participants anticipated.