Payward plans to offer U.S. clients onchain perpetual futures on Hyperliquid

Payward said it plans to give U.S. clients the ability to trade perpetual futures on Hyperliquid’s public blockchain, subject to approval by U.S. regulators. The initial rollout would use Hyperliquid HIP-3 markets, which let third parties deploy and operate permissioned perpetual markets on the chain. Payward’s proposal would list the contracts under Bitnomial Exchange, the company’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission–regulated designated contract market. Under the structure Payward described, Bitnomial Exchange and Bitnomial Clearinghouse would act as the HIP-3 deployer, responsible for creating and administering the markets and handling clearing and settlement. U.S. customers would need a futures account with Payward’s registered futures commission merchant, NinjaTrader Clearing, and accounts would require approval by both NinjaTrader Clearing and Bitnomial before trading. Perpetual futures have mostly traded outside U.S. regulated venues since they first appeared in 2016, but they represent substantial global activity: CoinGecko data cited more than $85 trillion in perp turnover during 2025. Hyperliquid itself is a material player in that ecosystem, with its DEX reportedly matching around 9% of all open perpetual positions globally. Payward’s entry could therefore channel some U.S.-based participation into Hyperliquid markets under a regulated operator and clearing arrangement. Payward has not released a timetable, fee schedule, projected trading volumes or any economic terms with Hyperliquid, and Hyperliquid had not responded to requests for comment at the time of reporting. The company noted that the proposal would not automatically make existing Hyperliquid markets available to U.S. traders; only markets deployed and administered under the Bitnomial/NinjaTrader arrangement would be eligible for U.S. clients if regulators approve the plan.