Kraken Parent Payward to Launch US Onchain Perpetuals

Regulatory framework and oversight

Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, announced Sept. 16 its plans to deploy onchain perpetual futures markets for U.S. clients through the decentralized trading protocol Hyperliquid. The initiative, which remains subject to regulatory approval, will start with Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 markets, the protocol’s first builder-deployed permissioned perpetual markets.

Under the proposed arrangement, transactions will run on Hyperliquid’s public blockchain, utilizing its onchain order book to match and record trades. Payward subsidiaries will manage the regulatory and administrative oversight. Bitnomial Exchange, a designated contract market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will act as the market deployer and administrator.

Bitnomial Clearinghouse, which was acquired by Payward earlier this year, will clear and settle the contracts, while CFTC-registered futures commission merchant Ninjatrader Clearing will carry client accounts. Access to trading will be restricted to clients onboarded by Ninjatrader and approved on allowlists maintained by both Bitnomial and Ninjatrader.

“A U.S. client would open a futures account with Payward’s registered broker and trade new perpetual futures contracts on Hyperliquid, cleared through the same clearinghouse that already supports the crypto perpetual contracts Payward offers U.S. clients today,” said Jon Pham, head of U.S. derivatives at Payward.

Perpetual futures have been widely traded outside the U.S. 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 limited by regulatory restrictions.

“Multiple venues run builder-deployed perpetuals on Hyperliquid. One holds 98 percent of their open interest, and no registered U.S. exchange or clearinghouse has deployed a market there,” said Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward. “Payward intends to be the first, holding the keys and carrying the regulatory obligations.”

Hyperliquid, launched in 2023, has recorded more than $200 billion in trading volume over the past 30 days, according to data from Defillama. Calvin Leyon, head of onchain at Kraken, noted that the integration demonstrates how decentralized infrastructure can adapt to meet regulated market requirements.

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, the new on-chain perpetual futures contracts will be listed under the rules of Bitnomial Exchange.