Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, announced September 16 its plans to deploy onchain perpetual futures markets for U.S. clients through the decentralized trading protocol Hyperliquid. The initiative will start with Hyperliquid's HIP-3 markets, the protocol's first builder-deployed permissioned perpetual markets, subject to regulatory approval.
The arrangement will use Hyperliquid's public blockchain and onchain order book to match and record trades. Transactions will be managed through Payward subsidiaries, with Bitnomial Exchange—a designated contract market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)—serving as the market deployer and administrator. Bitnomial Clearinghouse will clear and settle contracts, while CFTC-registered futures commission merchant Ninjatrader Clearing will carry client accounts.
Access will be restricted to clients onboarded by Ninjatrader and approved on allowlists maintained by both Bitnomial and Ninjatrader. According to Payward, U.S. clients would open futures accounts with Payward's registered broker and trade the new perpetual futures contracts on Hyperliquid through the same clearinghouse that already supports Payward's existing crypto perpetual contracts for U.S. clients.
Perpetual futures have been widely traded globally since 2016, with global trading volume exceeding $85 trillion in 2025, according to Coingecko's 2026 State of Crypto Perpetuals Report. However, U.S. access to such products has been restricted by regulatory limitations. Payward stated that Hyperliquid is the first protocol it plans to deploy on for U.S. clients, with plans to expand additional products through its existing infrastructure if approved by regulators.
