Kraken parent Payward plans permissioned Hyperliquid perpetuals for US traders
Payward plans permissioned Hyperliquid perpetuals for US clients
Payward, the parent company of the Kraken crypto exchange, says it plans to offer U.S. clients perpetual futures — contracts that track an asset's price without a set expiry date — whose trades would be matched and recorded on Hyperliquid's public blockchain.
Access would run through Payward's regulated derivatives structure and be restricted to approved accounts. The company says any listing remains subject to regulatory approval.
What the proposal includes
- Only accounts onboarded by NinjaTrader and placed on both NinjaTrader's and Bitnomial's allowlists could trade, according to Payward.
- Bitnomial, which Payward describes as its CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse, would deploy, own and administer the market, and clear and settle the contracts.
- NinjaTrader Clearing, Payward's CFTC-registered futures commission merchant, would carry approved 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 CFTC is the U.S. regulator for derivatives markets.
- Payward said the same clearinghouse already supports the crypto perpetual contracts it offers U.S. customers.
What Payward confirmed
Payward confirmed the project on its verified X account, saying: “We're building permissioned Hyperliquid HIP-3* markets for US clients.” The company identified Hyperliquid as the first protocol on which it plans to deploy markets for U.S. clients, and said any onchain perpetual futures would be listed under Bitnomial Exchange rules and remain subject to regulatory approval.
How Hyperliquid builder markets work
HIP-3 is a Hyperliquid improvement proposal that ordinarily lets qualifying builders deploy their own perpetual futures venues on the network. 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, using the dual allowlist as the mechanism to limit trading to customers accepted by the registered broker and by Bitnomial.
What is confirmed and what is not
Confirmed: Payward has announced the plan and its assigned roles for Bitnomial and NinjaTrader Clearing, and says the markets would run on Hyperliquid's public blockchain, where an onchain order book — the public list of buy and sell orders that matches trades — would match and record trades.
Not confirmed: the launch date, which specific contracts would be offered, and whether regulators will approve the markets. Payward itself says any listing remains subject to regulatory approval, so the proposal is not yet a live product.
Why it matters
The design would put onboarding with NinjaTrader and regulatory obligations with the named exchange, clearinghouse and broker, while keeping the order book and trade record on Hyperliquid. For eligible customers, Payward says the structure would provide access to new perpetual futures contracts through a registered futures account.