The Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) submitted a comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on August 24, advocating for cash-settled equity perpetual contracts to be permitted in US markets as security futures.
While perpetual contracts represent some of the most liquid instruments globally, US law has historically lacked a clear definition regarding whether they function as futures or swaps. In its letter and accompanying blog post, the HPC highlighted that these two categories share identical economics but are subject to distinct rules governing who may trade them and on which venues.
The HPC's filing responds to a joint request for comments by the SEC and CFTC aimed at further defining "swap" and "security-based swap." The advocacy group argued that a perpetual contract mirrors a futures contract, citing standard characteristics such as standardized terms, fungibility, futurity, and the ability to close positions via offsetting trades. According to the HPC, the absence of an expiration date does not disqualify them.
To resolve the regulatory ambiguity, the HPC has outlined four recommended steps for the agencies:
- Confirm that a qualifying equity perpetual can be listed as a security future.
- Preserve the current freedom of trading venues to make listing decisions.
- Keep asset classification consistent across both the SEC and CFTC.
- Modernize the security futures framework.
The advocacy group stated that the commissions could accomplish these steps through interpretive guidance, policy statements, and staff action without requiring formal rulemaking.
The HPC pointed to substantial offshore activity to support its case, noting that independent operators utilizing Hyperliquid have recorded more than $480 billion in cumulative notional trading over their first ten months, alongside approximately $4 billion in open interest. Separate figures from DefiLlama put Hyperliquid’s cumulative perpetual volume at more than $5 trillion and open interest near $13 billion.
Regulatory developments are already underway. On May 29, the CFTC cleared Kalshi’s BTCPERP as a futures contract, marking the first US-listed perpetual, though its policy statement noted that equity perpetuals require joint SEC-CFTC review. Additionally, CME Group revived single-stock futures on July 27.
The HPC was launched in February 2026 by the Hyper Foundation with an initial allocation of 1 million HYPE tokens valued at approximately $30 million, and is led by crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky. The initiative has also received political backing; President Trump stated on August 20 that CFTC Chairman Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the US in a compliant manner.
