Kraken Parent Company Not Opening Existing Hyperliquid Markets to U.S.: New Contract Plan
Payward, the parent company of Kraken, plans to offer perpetual futures on Hyperliquid to U.S. customers.
According to an announcement made by Payward on Wednesday, the plan will be implemented upon receiving regulatory approval. Instead of opening existing Hyperliquid markets to the U.S., the company will offer new contracts it creates to its customers.
In the first phase, transactions are expected to be conducted through the Hyperliquid HIP-3 structure, which allows third parties to create and manage their own perpetual futures markets. The contracts will be listed under Bitnomial Exchange, the market operator designated by Payward and regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
New contracts will be created for U.S. customers
Under the plan, customers will first need to open an account through Payward’s futures broker, NinjaTrader Clearing. Transactions can be executed once the accounts are approved by both NinjaTrader Clearing and Bitnomial.
Order matching and record-keeping processes will remain on Hyperliquid’s public blockchain. Bitnomial Exchange and Bitnomial Clearinghouse will create and manage the markets, handling the clearing and settlement of contracts. NinjaTrader Clearing will be responsible for customer accounts.
Jon Pham, Payward’s Head of U.S. Derivatives, stated that customers will trade on Hyperliquid by opening a futures account with a regulated broker, and transactions will be settled through the existing clearing infrastructure.
Perpetual futures allow investors to take positions on price movements without owning the underlying asset. Unlike traditional futures contracts, they do not have a set expiration date. According to CoinGecko’s 2026 report, the global trading volume for these products exceeded $85 trillion in 2025. Hyperliquid holds approximately 9 percent of the world’s open perpetual futures positions.
Payward acquired Bitnomial for $550 million in May and NinjaTrader Clearing for $1.5 billion in 2025. The company has not yet provided details regarding a launch date, trading fees, expected volume, or potential revenue sharing with Hyperliquid.