Hyperliquid names Payward's Bitnomial first CFTC-regulated HIP-3 deployer

Hyperliquid said on Monday that Payward — Kraken's parent — will be the first CFTC-regulated deployer on its HIP-3 permissioned-perpetuals framework, through Payward's subsidiary Bitnomial. The announcement, posted to Hyperliquid's X account on October 26, formalises an arrangement first floated by Payward on September 16 and reported earlier by Bloomberg. The Block reported the Hyperliquid confirmation; the launch is still conditional on CFTC approval.

How the stack is wired

• Bitnomial Exchange — Payward's CFTC-registered designated contract market (DCM) and derivatives clearing organisation — would act as the HIP-3 deployer, creating and administering the perpetual markets.
• Bitnomial Clearinghouse would clear and settle the contracts.
• NinjaTrader Clearing, Payward's CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and NFA member, would carry client accounts.
• Access would be gated by an on-chain allowlist combining NinjaTrader onboarding with Bitnomial's permission list.
• Matching and trade records would run on Hyperliquid's L1, which stays open; the regulated perimeter is drawn around who may trade, not where trades are recorded.

In Hyperliquid's own words from the X thread, "Hyperliquid is a neutral infrastructure layer with the goal of supporting large parts of the financial system," with deployers keeping control and responsibility for their own markets.

HIP-3 primer

HIP-3 is the Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal that lets permissioned entities deploy perp markets on top of the Hyperliquid L1 and restrict participation via on-chain allowlists. The permissioning functions are available on testnet; no CFTC-regulated HIP-3 deployer has gone live.

Status: pending

Payward presented the structure to the CFTC earlier this year, but the agency has not approved it. One former SEC counsel cited in prior reporting estimated 10–12 months of additional runway before any potential launch. The Oct 26 Hyperliquid post does not change that: it names Payward as the intended first deployer, not an active one.

Payward agreed in April to acquire Bitnomial for up to $550M. Kraken started offering perpetual futures to eligible US customers via Bitnomial in June, outside the Hyperliquid stack.

What to watch

1. A CFTC order granting Bitnomial-the-DCM permission to list the specific perpetual contracts tied to Hyperliquid markets.
2. The contract specs — which assets, mark-price methodology, funding mechanism — none disclosed yet.
3. Any CFTC rulemaking on derivatives event contracts and perps on decentralised venues that could accelerate or stall the structure.
4. Whether the HIP-3 allowlist gates sit at the FCM, the DCM or both; the gating pattern matters for institutions that already KYC with one but not the other.

Context

If approved, the arrangement would be the first US-regulated perp venue using a public blockchain L1 for matching and recordkeeping, with the regulated wrappers (DCM, DCO, FCM) sitting around it rather than inside it. The pattern — regulated-wrapper-around-public-chain — is the inverse of the walled-garden model that regulated US venues like CME have run on. Approval would also force a direct policy answer from the CFTC on whether a non-US-operated chain can host US-regulated derivatives data.