Hyperliquid Policy Center urges U.S. regulators to harmonize perpetual contract rules

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Hyperliquid urges US rule harmony

Highlights

Hyperliquid Policy Center urges the SEC and CFTC to harmonize perpetual contract rules based on economic structure instead of underlying asset type.
The group reports Hyperliquid HIP-3 markets generated over $480 billion in trading volume and hold $4 billion in open interest since launch 10 months ago.
Political and regulatory scrutiny intensifies as President Trump states the CFTC is working to bring the platform into U.S. compliance, raising visibility for perpetuals.

Regulatory framework proposal gains focus

As reported by The Block, citing Hyperliquid Policy Center in a comment letter published Monday, the group is urging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to adopt a harmonized framework for perpetual contracts.

The group says perpetuals should be classified on the basis of their economic structure, not simply by whether they reference bitcoin, oil or a stock. It argues that a clearer taxonomy would reduce disputes over which regulator's registrants can list particular products and help prevent those conflicts from ending up in court.

Hyperliquid Policy Center also says the current framework was built for products that have been commercially dormant for many years and needs modernization to accommodate newer market structures. In a post on X, it points to security futures as a category already overseen by both commissions, where exchanges primarily regulated by one agency can cross over to the other through notice registration.

Exchange competition and market implications

The policy push comes as traditional exchanges scrutinize the expansion of perpetual contracts in the U.S. Hyperliquid offers perpetual markets tied to assets including bitcoin, ether, oil, gold, currencies, stock indexes, individual stocks and ETFs.

According to the group’s letter, Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 markets have generated more than $480 billion in trading volume since launching 10 months ago and hold about $4 billion in open interest. The group argues that a harmonized framework would let exchanges compete more on execution quality and liquidity instead of on regulatory boundary disputes.

The debate is also unfolding as President Trump recently says the CFTC is working to bring the platform to the U.S. in a fully compliant and legal fashion. That adds political and regulatory visibility to a market segment drawing increasing attention from both crypto firms and established exchange operators.

In our earlier coverage of the SEC’s probe into hedge fund Situational Awareness, we outlined how the regulator sought detailed records on the fund’s trading activity and its communications with banks that provided leverage after a sharp July tech sell-off. We also noted the fund’s emergency asset sale and subsequent shift away from bank borrowing—illustrating how quickly regulatory attention can intensify when newer, high-leverage strategies meet market stress.

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