Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, has confirmed a strategic agreement with Trade[XYZ] to build a regulated market for perpetual futures in the United States. The market would operate on Hyperliquid’s infrastructure, the onchain trading system that has become a hub for offshore derivatives activity.
What ICE and Trade[XYZ] agreed to
The agreement was confirmed on October 29, 2026. Under its terms, ICE would be the exclusive operator of the new US market, with Trade[XYZ] as its partner. ICE is also taking a minority stake in Trade[XYZ]; the terms of that investment were not disclosed.
Perpetual futures differ from traditional futures contracts in that they have no expiration date, allowing traders to hold a leveraged position for as long as they keep it funded.
The new venue would use Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 deployment mechanism, a framework that allows operators to launch their own markets on top of Hyperliquid’s trading infrastructure. In effect, ICE would run the storefront while Hyperliquid supplies the engine.
Built for retail, not trading desks
The product line is aimed at retail traders. It would offer leveraged trading around the clock, seven days a week, across crypto, equities, indices, commodities and forex. ICE’s stated goal is to address unmet retail demand for shorter-duration assets.
Access would not be a free-for-all. Retail traders would reach the market through regulated futures commission merchants (FCMs), the brokers licensed to handle futures customers in the US. Those brokers would run standard KYC and anti-money laundering checks.
Trade[XYZ]’s track record and the HYPE reaction
Trade[XYZ] has generated over $650 billion in trading volume in just over a year on Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 markets. Following the announcement, Hyperliquid’s HYPE token rose approximately 13-15%, landing at around $91.
High-profile investors are also attached to the effort, including billionaire Stan Druckenmiller.
The regulatory hurdle still ahead
None of this is live yet. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees US futures markets, still has to approve both the new market structure and the leveraged trading it would offer. No launch date has been set.
What this means for traders and the market
For US retail traders, the most direct implication is access. Perpetual futures have been one of the most popular instruments in crypto, but American users have mostly been kept at arm’s length from the venues offering them. A CFTC-approved, ICE-operated venue would give those traders a domestic option with brokerage oversight and identity checks.
The items to watch are straightforward. First, whether and when the CFTC approves the structure. Second, which FCMs sign on to offer access. Third, whether the volume Trade[XYZ] built offshore can translate to a market with KYC requirements and US oversight. The undisclosed size of ICE’s minority stake is another open question; a larger commitment would signal how much conviction the exchange operator has in the model beyond operating the venue.
