A subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Hyperliquid Strategies has applied to become a futures commission merchant (FCM), the class of CFTC-registered broker that holds customer funds and handles futures orders. If approved, the unit would carry U.S. client accounts for permissioned markets built on Hyperliquid, giving Americans a regulated framework for trading perpetual futures on the onchain exchange.

The Nasdaq-listed treasury firm, which trades under the ticker PURR and is chaired by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, built its business around holding HYPE. It disclosed the application in its quarterly results published Thursday. The filing joins separate efforts by Payward, the parent of Kraken, and NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange to bring Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures to U.S. traders.

"We deployed $802 million this quarter and filed an application to become a futures commission merchant," CEO David Schamis said. "Those two moves are the same bet."

How the Permissioned Markets Would Work

Perpetual futures are derivative contracts with no expiration date that allow traders to take leveraged positions on an underlying asset. Hyperliquid is a major onchain venue for these products but still blocks U.S. users, leaving Americans without a domestic on-ramp to its markets. Its HIP-3 framework lets outside firms launch their own perpetual markets on Hyperliquid's order book after staking HYPE. A new permissioned version, known as HIP-3*, would let a regulated deployer run markets restricted to approved traders, with Hyperliquid acting as neutral infrastructure.

Under this model, the FCM subsidiary would carry U.S. client accounts for the permissioned markets, placing a CFTC-registered intermediary between U.S. customers and the onchain order book. Greater U.S. trading volume routed through Hyperliquid would likely generate more fees for the protocol, which uses fee revenue to buy back HYPE — the token at the center of Hyperliquid Strategies' treasury. The registration would also give Hyperliquid Strategies an operating business of its own beyond holding tokens.

Quarterly Results

The quarterly figures quantify the treasury side of that bet. Hyperliquid Strategies held roughly 38.5 million HYPE at the end of September, valued at approximately $3.5 billion. During the quarter, it spent $785 million buying 9.1 million HYPE and $17 million repurchasing 2.7 million of its own shares, funded largely by $911 million raised through stock sales. The $785 million in HYPE purchases and the $17 million in share buybacks together account for the $802 million deployment total Schamis cited. The firm reported $620.6 million in net income, driven almost entirely by $803 million in unrealized gains as HYPE rose from about $65 to $91 over the period.

Parallel Industry Moves

Hyperliquid Strategies will not be alone. Kraken parent Payward has said it plans to deploy HIP-3* markets through its CFTC-regulated Bitnomial exchange, with NinjaTrader Clearing serving as the FCM.

Last week, NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange agreed to team up with Trade[XYZ] to bring Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures to the U.S., a deal that sent HYPE up 13% on the news. Trade[XYZ] already operates markets on Hyperliquid, including perpetual futures tied to the S&P 500.

In the Payward and Hyperliquid Strategies models alike, the FCM serves as the regulated gateway between U.S. customers and Hyperliquid's order book.

Regulators must still approve both the FCM registration and the permissioned HIP-3 markets it would serve, and the company has given no timeline for the process. Until those approvals land, U.S. access to Hyperliquid perps exists only on paper, making the CFTC's response to the PURR subsidiary's application the next milestone to watch.