Hyperliquid will let the operators of its builder-run markets decide who may trade them. The feature, called HIP-3*, adds an onchain allowlist controlled by each market’s deployer, Hyperliquid said on X on Monday.
Hyperliquid is a so-called layer-1 blockchain, a base network that runs its own validators, built around an onchain order book for perpetual futures. Perpetual futures, or perps, are contracts that track an asset’s price and have no expiry date.
Under HIP-3, outside builders can already launch their own perp markets on that order book. HIP-3* is the permissioned version, and Hyperliquid says it will arrive in a future network upgrade.
The first user lined up is Payward, the parent of Kraken. Hyperliquid said Payward intends to be the first deployer regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), using Hyperliquid as the infrastructure for perp markets aimed at US clients.
Who would do what
Subject to regulatory approval, Bitnomial, Payward’s CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse, would act as the deployer. It would create, own and administer the markets and clear and settle the contracts, according to Hyperliquid.
If approved, NinjaTrader Clearing, Payward’s CFTC-registered futures commission merchant, would carry client accounts. Payward set out the plan in a 16 Sep press release, which said only accounts on both NinjaTrader’s and Bitnomial’s allowlists could trade.
Neither company has given a launch date or said which contracts would be listed. The HIP-3* code is on testnet, and Hyperliquid says its specifications are “preliminary and subject to change based on feedback”.
“Hyperliquid is a neutral infrastructure layer with the goal of supporting large parts of the financial system,” the post said.
Why it matters: more than $85 trillion of perps traded worldwide in 2025, Payward said, citing CoinGecko, yet for most of the past decade no US venue offered them. Who gets to sell them onshore is contested: CME is suing the CFTC in a dispute over US perpetual futures.
Permissionless chain, permissioned markets
HIP-3* inverts Hyperliquid’s usual pitch. The chain made its name as a venue anyone with a wallet can use, and its builder markets have been open too, including stock perpetuals run by outside builders.
Hyperliquid says the new feature is “strictly additive”. Using it is up to each deployer, and existing markets stay as they are.
Hyperliquid says the allowlist lets deployers run markets in line with the rules that apply to them, while trades still match on a public order book. It describes HIP-3* deployers as independent operators that keep control of, and responsibility for, their markets. Payward says Bitnomial and NinjaTrader hold the regulatory obligations.
“Multiple venues run builder-deployed perpetuals on Hyperliquid,” Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in September, adding that no registered US exchange or clearinghouse had deployed a market there.
The open question is how the CFTC will treat a regulated market whose order book runs on a public chain. Washington is already hearing from the Hyperliquid camp: the Hyperliquid Policy Center, an advocacy group, filed comments on the SEC’s crypto asset rules last week.
Payward, meanwhile, keeps adding licensed pieces, from NinjaTrader and Bitnomial in the US to a Lithuanian bank in Europe.
HYPE, Hyperliquid’s token, traded at $77.64, up 0.9% over 24 hours, as of 20:52 UTC, according to CoinGecko. The next steps are the HIP-3* network upgrade, which has no date yet, and regulatory approval for Bitnomial’s markets.
Related: ICE later agreed to run US-regulated versions of Hyperliquid perpetual markets
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.