Hyperliquid Strategies Seeks US Futures Commission Merchant Status

Hyperliquid Strategies, which buys, holds and stakes the HYPE token, has said it intends to become a futuresФьючерсыA futures contract is a standardized exchange-traded contract to buy or sell an asset at a price agreed in advance, on a set date in the future. commission merchant (FCM) regulated in the United States. The plan was described in a press release dated Thursday, November 5. CEO David Schamis announced it while reporting quarterly earnings.

Why the company wants FCM status

According to Schamis, most of the fees generated by on-chain finance flow to the Hyperliquid protocol, and nearly all of that value returns to HYPE holders through programmatic buybacks. Owning the token is how the company aims to capture the protocol's economics. Setting up an FCM is how it intends to help bring markets deployed on Hyperliquid onshore into a regulated US jurisdiction.

Why the platform is closed to Americans

Hyperliquid runs on its own blockchainБлокчейнA blockchain is a distributed database in the form of a chain of blocks, where each record is cryptographically linked to the previous one, and copies are stored by many network participants. with HYPE as its native token and has become a major player in perpetual futuresБессрочный фьючерсPerpetual futures are derivative contracts on a crypto asset with no expiry date, whose price is kept close to the spot price by a funding rate mechanism. outside the US. It remains closed to US customers, CoinDesk reported. Hyperliquid Strategies is a separate, publicly traded company focused on holding and stakingСтейкингStaking is locking up cryptocurrency on a Proof-of-Stake network to take part in transaction validation and earn rewards in the network's tokens. the token, not on operating the platform.

White House and CFTC position

In August, the White House said it was trying to bring Hyperliquid into the US in a fully compliant and legal fashion, with the assistance of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). President Donald Trump has reportedly aimed to strengthen the American perpetuals market. However, the effort faces legal objections from the US derivatives industry.

Perpetual futures and this week's developments

Perpetual futures track an underlying asset's price without an expiration date. A leveragedКредитное плечоLeverage (margin trading) is the use of borrowed funds to increase the size of a position while committing less of your own capital. Profit and loss are calculated on the full position size. position can be held indefinitely as long as the trader meets margin and funding requirements. Conventional futures, by contrast, expire, so traders must roll their positions.

This week the CFTC announced that equity perpetual futures can begin trading on CFTC-registered exchanges. PYMNTS reports that these contracts fall under oversight from both the CFTC and the SEC, rather than occupying the regulatory 'no man's land' described by SEC Chairman Paul Atkins. The outlet sees this as evidence that regulators are accommodating products that cross the line between securities and derivatives.