Kraken Parent Payward Plans U.S. Onchain Perpetual Futures via Hyperliquid

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, announced plans to offer U.S. clients access to onchain perpetual futures markets via the Hyperliquid protocol, pending regulatory approval.

The firm intends to leverage its recent $550 million acquisition of Bitnomial Exchange to become the first registered U.S. exchange to deploy markets on Hyperliquid. The contracts would operate under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated Bitnomial, with NinjaTrader Clearing handling approved client accounts.

Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated the plan is to start with Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 markets, which allow third parties to run their own permissioned perpetual futures markets. The move aims to bring a popular onchain trading product into a regulated U.S. framework.

The company has not disclosed a specific launch date, fee structure, or projected trading volumes for the proposed offering, which remains subject to regulatory green lights.