Hyperliquid's HYPE Jumps 13% as NYSE Owner ICE Moves to Bring Its Perpetual Futures to the US
HYPE, the token behind the Hyperliquid exchange, jumped about 13% on Thursday to roughly $91 after Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, announced a deal to bring Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures to the United States.
The token climbed from a daily open of $80.69 to a high of $92.10 on KuCoin, leaving it about 7% below the record near $98 it set in September. Hyperliquid's token now trades at around a $22.4 billion market capitalization.
Exclusive Operator Deal
ICE and Trade[XYZ], a company that runs markets for real-world assets on Hyperliquid, signed a definitive agreement that makes ICE the exclusive operator of Trade[XYZ]'s regulated markets, and ICE is taking a strategic stake in the company.
ICE will build a dedicated retail market and clearing structure for the product, which still needs regulatory approvals and has no launch date.
Perpetual Futures Explained
Perpetual futures are derivatives with no expiry date that let traders take leveraged positions, meaning bets amplified with borrowed money. Trade[XYZ] already offers eligible users outside the U.S. around-the-clock perpetuals on stocks, equity indices, commodities and currencies, while Hyperliquid provides the underlying infrastructure.
Regulatory Compliance
The U.S. markets are meant to comply with know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules, which require identity checks, and ICE will seek approvals to support leveraged trading.
Verified customers would connect through futures commission merchants, the brokers that handle customer futures accounts, and ICE plans to distribute the product through its joint venture with OKX, which has its own approvals pending. ICE bought into OKX at a $25 billion valuation in March.
ICE Chair and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher described the perpetuals as 'additive to our futures markets, not a replacement for them.' ICE says more than 99% of its participation today is institutional, so retail traders are a new business, and it will run the unit separately from its institutional futures and clearing franchise.
President Donald Trump said in August that the CFTC was working to let Hyperliquid operate legally in the United States, where the exchange is currently geofenced.
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