Kraken Parent Plans Permissioned Hyperliquid Perps for US Traders

Payward, Kraken’s parent company, plans to offer U.S. clients perpetual futures whose trades would be matched and recorded on Hyperliquid, with access running through Payward’s regulated derivatives structure and restricted to approved accounts.

The proposal concerns new permissioned markets. Payward says only accounts onboarded by NinjaTrader and included on both NinjaTrader’s and Bitnomial’s allowlists could trade. Any listing remains subject to regulatory approval.

For eligible customers, the structure would provide access to new perpetual futures contracts on Hyperliquid through a registered futures account, while placing onboarding and regulatory obligations with the named exchange, clearinghouse and broker.

Payward confirmed the project on its verified X account, saying: “We’re building permissioned Hyperliquid HIP-3* markets for US clients.”

Bitnomial, which Payward describes as its CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse, would serve as the HIP-3 deployer. It would create, own and administer the market and clear and settle the contracts. NinjaTrader Clearing, Payward’s CFTC-registered futures commission merchant, would carry customer accounts.

Payward separately identifies Bitnomial Exchange as a CFTC-regulated designated contract market, Bitnomial Clearinghouse as a CFTC-registered derivatives clearing organization, and NinjaTrader Clearing as a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and NFA member.

The markets would run on Hyperliquid’s public blockchain, where the onchain order book would match and record trades. That structure places onboarding with NinjaTrader and regulatory obligations with the named entities while leaving the order book and trade record on Hyperliquid.

Payward said the same clearinghouse already supports the crypto perpetual contracts it offers U.S. customers.

A Permissioned Version of Builder-Deployed Markets

HIP-3 ordinarily lets qualifying builders deploy their own perpetual futures venues on Hyperliquid. The deployer defines the market and contract specifications, sets oracle prices and leverage limits, and can settle the market. Each HIP-3 venue has independent margining, order books and deployer settings.

Payward describes its planned HIP-3* venues as permissioned. The dual allowlist is the stated mechanism for limiting trading to customers accepted by the registered broker and Bitnomial.

The company identified Hyperliquid as the first protocol on which it plans to deploy markets for U.S. clients. It said any onchain perpetual futures would be listed under Bitnomial Exchange rules and remain subject to regulatory approval.