Hyperliquid, the decentralized derivatives venue backed by a Washington, D.C.–based policy team, has mounted a rapid defense after a Bloomberg report said traditional exchanges are pressing U.S. regulators to rein it in.
According to Bloomberg, CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) are lobbying the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and lawmakers to bring federal oversight to Hyperliquid. Their concern: the platform’s rising volumes in crypto and commodity-linked derivatives could begin to influence price discovery in benchmarked markets—oil among them—and its anonymous trading options might let actors with privileged information or state ties distort prices used across markets.
CME and ICE’s remedy, per the report, is simple: require Hyperliquid to register with the CFTC. Registration would typically trigger customer identification (KYC) programs and formal trade-surveillance systems—requirements that clash with Hyperliquid’s design, which explicitly supports anonymous trading settings.
Hyperliquid’s policy arm, the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) led by CEO Jake Chervisnky, pushed back publicly on X (formerly Twitter), calling the criticisms “unfounded.” The HPC argues the exchange is, in many ways, more transparent than traditional venues because every trade is recorded on-chain in real time. That persistent, public ledger, the group says, actually makes insider trading and covert price manipulation harder and provides clearer material for regulators and law enforcement to surveil and investigate.
The HPC also defended Hyperliquid’s around-the-clock trading as an efficiency — a way to shrink the price gaps and discontinuities that happen when traditional markets close. At the same time, the policy team conceded a key point from Bloomberg: U.S. law is not yet built around derivatives markets operating on public blockchains. The group said it will continue engaging Washington policymakers to help bring on-chain markets inside a workable regulatory framework.
Some observers see a different angle on the push for regulation. Reporting from The Defiant frames the lobbying as potentially self-interested, noting CME’s own 24/7 crypto expansion—including Bitcoin Volatility Futures slated to start trading June 1 and Nasdaq CME Crypto Index Futures, covering BTC, ETH, XRP and others, set to launch June 8—which would put the incumbents in more direct competition with continuous, blockchain-native venues.
Market snapshot: Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE was trading around $44.60 at the time of writing, up roughly 1.6% over 24 hours and nearly 4% over seven days.
Image note: featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com.
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