HYPE, the token behind the Hyperliquid exchange, jumped about 13% on Thursday to roughly $91 after Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, announced an agreement 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.

The rally came against a broader market backdrop in which the Federal Reserve held interest rates at 3.75% to 4% in a 10-2 vote, with two officials preferring a hike, while WTI crude traded near $100 and the 10-year Treasury yield sat at about 5%.

ICE to Run Trade[XYZ]'s Regulated Markets Exclusively

ICE and Trade[XYZ], a company that runs markets for real-world assets on Hyperliquid, signed a definitive agreement — a binding contract setting final terms — that makes ICE the exclusive operator of Trade[XYZ]'s regulated markets, with ICE also taking a strategic stake in the company.

The exchange operator said it will build a dedicated retail market and clearing structure for the product, which still needs regulatory approvals and has no launch date. The deal was detailed in a press release on ICE's investor relations site.

In a post on X, the company said:

"We're honored to have your trust and support. " — trade.xyz (@tradexyz) October 29, 2026

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. That split is the crux for U.S. traders: neither Hyperliquid nor Trade[XYZ]'s existing perpetuals are available to them today, and the ICE deal is designed to close that gap.

Druckenmiller Voices Support

Stan Druckenmiller, the macro investor who ran the Duquesne Capital hedge fund for about 30 years and has said the fund never had a losing year, publicly backed the deal as an investor in Trade[XYZ]. Druckenmiller is widely regarded as one of the best-known macro traders of his generation.

"I am excited to be an investor in trade(xyz) as they partner with ICE to bring 24/7 perpetual futures on Hyperliquid to the United States," Druckenmiller wrote on X. "As a market participant, I am looking forward to using their innovative product to enhance my investment process."

Regulatory Path and Distribution

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. 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, tying the NYSE parent to one of the world's largest crypto exchanges.

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, meaning retail traders represent a new business, and the company will run the unit separately from its institutional futures and clearing franchise.

President Donald Trump said in August that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was working to let Hyperliquid operate legally in the United States, where the exchange is currently geofenced — a restriction that blocks access based on a user's location. With regulatory approvals still outstanding and no launch date set, the CFTC's work and the OKX joint venture's pending clearances remain the main milestones between Hyperliquid-based perpetuals and U.S. retail access.