Crypto market maker Cumberland has expressed caution about plans to bring Hyperliquid perpetual futures trading to the United States through partnerships with the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Kraken.
Don Wilson, co-founder and CEO of Cumberland, outlined four key concerns about whether Hyperliquid's underlying technology aligns with CFTC market rules.
Transparency and Privacy Issues
Wilson questioned the regulatory necessity of on-chain perpetual futures trading when regulated centralized exchanges like Coinbase already offer similar products. He also highlighted a fundamental difference: while CFTC-regulated entities maintain partial anonymity in trading relationships, Hyperliquid's fully transparent order book allows real-time tracking of wallet addresses and trades. Wilson posed this concern directly to billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, a backer of the deal, asking whether he was aware that traders on Hyperliquid can be tracked in real time.
Trading Efficiency and Order Book Concerns
Wilson raised additional questions about potential front-running risks using Hyperliquid priority fees and whether a U.S. order book would be merged with the more liquid global order book. He concluded that the on-chain trading plan could present trading inefficiencies and regulatory complications.
Mixed Industry Response
Rebecca Rettig, legal chief at Jito Labs, suggested privacy solutions could address the transparency concerns but agreed that merging onshore and offshore order books represented the most critical issue. She noted that precedent from Binance U.S., which maintains thinner liquidity by operating a separate order book from the global platform, illustrates the challenges such separation creates.
Hyperliquid has diversified its revenue streams beyond trading fees to include USDT reserve yield and deployer perpetuals. The platform's monthly revenue doubled from approximately $60 million in July to nearly $120 million in September. HYPE, the native token, gained 20 percent on October 29 following the ICE announcement but later retreated to $87.
