Hyperliquid Labs is in advanced talks with Payward, Kraken’s parent company, about bringing its perpetual futures to U.S. traders, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 31, citing people who were not authorized to discuss the matter.

According to the report, a deal would require regulatory sign-off and would allow U.S. traders to use Payward’s Bitnomial exchange for some perpetual futures tied to the prices of crypto tokens built on Hyperliquid’s blockchain. Representatives of Payward and Hyperliquid Labs declined to comment to Bloomberg.

The reported structure therefore centers on Bitnomial, a regulated derivatives entity. The talks remain unconfirmed by the companies, and Bloomberg described the prospective arrangement as subject to regulatory approval.

Bitnomial Supplies the Regulated Route

Payward announced an agreement to acquire Bitnomial in April. Kraken said Bitnomial had assembled U.S. derivatives licenses covering an exchange, clearinghouse and brokerage. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission designated Bitnomial Exchange as a contract market in 2020.

Kraken had already described how Bitnomial fits into its U.S. perpetual-futures business. In May, Kraken announced plans for CFTC-regulated perpetual futures to trade through Kraken Pro, with those contracts listed on Bitnomial. Kraken said the products would be offered through NinjaTrader Clearing, doing business as Kraken Derivatives US, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant.

Bloomberg reported that, if regulators approve a deal, U.S.-based traders could use Bitnomial to trade some perpetual futures tied to the prices of crypto tokens built on Hyperliquid’s blockchain. That would pair Hyperliquid-linked products with Payward’s existing exchange and brokerage structure if the parties reach a deal and regulators approve it.

HIP-3 Link Is Not Confirmed

Hyperliquid’s public documentation describes HIP-3 as a system for permissionless, builder-deployed perpetual markets. A deployer must stake 500,000 HYPE and is responsible for defining and operating its markets, while each HIP-3 exchange has independent margining, order books and deployer settings.

Separately, Shaunda Devens reported observing Hyperliquid testnet features, including wallet whitelisting and controls that would let a deployer cancel user orders, close positions and move collateral. She said those features mirrored capabilities a compliant deployer might need and identified one test deployment named “Kraken HIP-3 test DEX.”

Devens also cautioned that anyone could launch a testnet exchange under any name. Her observations do not confirm Kraken’s involvement or establish that HIP-3 is part of the talks reported by Bloomberg.

For now, Bitnomial is the regulated venue in the structure reported by Bloomberg, while a HIP-3 implementation remains unconfirmed. Bloomberg said any deal would still require regulatory sign-off.