The Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) has filed a statement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) urging the regulator to make perpetual contracts a priority in its innovation agenda. The filing, submitted on Thursday, August 27, 2026, is the organization's latest move on behalf of US traders who have been shut out of a derivatives market that has grown beyond $500 billion in offshore volume.

Perpetual contracts dominated the CFTC meeting

The statement arrives shortly after the CFTC held its first Innovation Advisory Committee meeting on August 20. Perpetual contracts were not part of the main agenda, which covered digital assets, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets. According to HPC, committee members raised the topic of perpetual contracts in each of the meeting's three sessions, suggesting the product is already circulating within the agency's broader policy discussion even without a formal slot on the agenda.

HPC took this as proof of demand and built its statement around four arguments: that perpetuals are critical to the CFTC's innovation work; that they meet real hedging needs; that a friendlier CFTC is presently bringing these markets onshore; and that public blockchains can modernize derivative plumbing, in effect rewriting the law.

Jake Chervinsky, chief executive of HPC, signed the statement alongside senior counsel Brad Bourque, and the document was submitted to Commission Secretary Christopher Kirkpatrick. HPC describes itself as an independent research and advocacy organization with ties to the Hyperliquid Foundation, which founded the center in February 2026.

Who spoke at the committee meeting

In its statement, HPC named the committee members who raised perpetuals, citing timestamps from the meeting webcast. Tyler Winklevoss of Gemini said US firms are being left behind as perpetual contracts make up a large share of global digital assets trading volume. Don Wilson of DRW described perpetuals as risk tools that registered funds would rather hold next to dated futures. Brian Armstrong of Coinbase, Raghu Yarlagadda of FalconX, and Multicoin's Tushar Jain also spoke in favor of perpetuals.

How a contract can track a price without expiring

A substantial portion of the filing addresses the mechanics of a perpetual contract. A perpetual has no settlement date and cannot be rolled over or delivered. Rather than expiring, money is transferred between long and short holders through a recurring funding payment, which is designed to pull the contract price back toward a reference price.

HPC argues this makes perpetuals a better solution for exposures that do not end. It offered three examples: an airline consuming aviation fuel, a fund managing portfolio risk, and an AI developer facing rising compute costs. All three carry ongoing costs, and hedging such exposures with dated futures forces traders through a roll cycle that brings timing risk and transaction costs.

A friendlier CFTC docket, with a lawsuit to match

The statement arrives at a moment when the CFTC has become markedly more receptive to perpetuals. In May, the agency approved the first US-listed perpetual futures contract, Kalshi's BTCPERP, and released a policy statement and staff guidance that addressed continuous trading. In June, it requested comment on extending the product to storable energy commodities.

HPC and the HIP-3 deployer trade[XYZ] submitted a joint response to the energy request on August 26. Days earlier, on August 24, HPC filed a separate response asking the SEC and CFTC to treat qualifying equity perpetuals as security futures.

Walt Lukken of the FIA presented committee figures showing that the agency now oversees 30 designated contract markets, up from 16 in 2003, with 17 applications pending. The agency also supervises 6,700 listed contracts, up from 2,100 in 2023.

Not everyone supports the shift. CME Group took the CFTC to court in June, arguing that perpetuals are swaps rather than futures, and CME's outgoing chief, Terry Duffy, has referred to the product as "a disaster waiting to happen."