President Donald Trump said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is working on regulated US market access for the perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid, with Chairman Michael Selig leading the effort, the president told a White House crypto summit. The statement comes barely three months after the first CFTC approval of a Bitcoin perpetual contract.

Hyperliquid is a decentralized derivatives exchange for perpetual futures — contracts without an expiry date — where no traditional broker sits in between. The platform is regarded as the largest venue in its segment. Perpetuals of this kind were popularized by offshore crypto exchanges in the mid-2010s and have grown into one of the most heavily traded crypto products, changing hands mostly on venues outside US oversight. Hyperliquid is no exception: it operates offshore, beyond the jurisdiction of the US futures regulator, and its terms of service currently bar US persons from trading on it. That is the gap regulated access would close.

The Senate confirmed Selig in December 2025 as the 16th chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Before that, he led the SEC Crypto Task Force as chief counsel. In April 2026, he told the House Agriculture Committee he wanted to "onshore" decentralized perpetual markets such as Hyperliquid. Earlier, Representative Austin Scott (R-GA) had pressed the same committee, seeking to have the exchange meet the standards of regulated US futures exchanges.

The HYPE token, the platform's native asset, responded to Trump's remarks with a double-digit gain. CoinDesk reported an increase of around 11% on Wednesday morning, and the advance widened during the day.

Selig prepares compliant CFTC market access for Hyperliquid

The White House invited executives from the crypto and technology industry to the summit at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and Patrick Witt, the president's crypto adviser, also attended. In addition, Coinbase, Ripple, Gemini, Robinhood, Polymarket, Kalshi, a16z, Chainlink, Paradigm and the Digital Chamber sent representatives. With Kalshi and Polymarket, two prediction market operators sat at the table. The White House published no official attendee list, but the gathering brought futures exchanges, prediction market operators and venture capital together in one room.

"As far as I know, Mike [Selig] is also working on bringing Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal way […]" – Donald Trump, US President

The summit also served as the run-up to the first public meeting of the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee, which followed the next day. Crypto, prediction markets and artificial intelligence are on the agenda. The committee advises the agency on innovation questions. The president's wording therefore matches a position the agency chief had already taken in the spring — it did not sound spontaneous.

KalshiEX approval provides the blueprint for onshoring

Kalshi runs a prediction market in the US as a CFTC-regulated exchange. In late May 2026, the commission approved the BTCPERP contract of KalshiEX LLC. It was the first contract entirely without an expiry date that the CFTC formally cleared for a US exchange. However, the approval went neither to Coinbase nor to Hyperliquid itself. As a result, perpetual contracts on digital commodities gained a framework for the first time. Such contracts trade around the clock and settle the difference to the spot price through periodic funding payments.

On the same day, the responsible division granted Coinbase Financial Markets Inc. a no-action letter. That unit operates as a registered futures commission merchant. Since then, it may give institutional US clients access to perpetual contracts on digital commodities at the Deribit exchange, with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana among them. Coinbase has owned Deribit since August 2025. In regulatory terms, these positions count as "foreign futures". Consequently, access runs through a registered US intermediary rather than the exchange itself. In effect, both decisions define how an offshore perpetual market can legally reach US customers.

Two paths emerge for Hyperliquid. One option would be registration as a designated contract market; the other, the status of a foreign board of trade. The first would place the exchange under direct US supervision. The second keeps the venue offshore while opening a supervised channel to US customers; several major non-US exchanges outside crypto already hold foreign board of trade registration. Both routes, however, demand customer surveillance, reporting duties and a formal supervisory relationship with the agency. After the Kalshi approval, HYPE climbed to a then record high of USD 67.24, according to industry reports. Evidence of a link between the decision and the price move is still missing.

Traditional futures exchanges push for Hyperliquid oversight

Resistance comes from the established futures exchanges. According to reports, ICE and CME Group want the CFTC to force Hyperliquid to register. Both point to stricter customer surveillance and continuous US oversight. Moreover, they warn of manipulation risks for global oil prices, which perpetual contracts can track. Both companies run regulated futures exchanges in the US themselves. Commodity contracts thus touch the price discovery of the markets where they earn their core revenue.

Pushback also comes from the exchange's own camp. The Hyperliquid Policy Center, launched in February 2026, argues that current US law does not fit derivatives markets on public blockchains. A donation from the Hyper Foundation of 1 million HYPE — roughly USD 29 million — funds the independent non-profit organization. The center also highlights the efficiency and transparency of on-chain order books.

How large the platform's lead really is remains disputed. The tracker and the measurement method drive the numbers. Estimates of Hyperliquid's share of on-chain perpetual volume range from 38% to more than 70%. Overall, that spread shows how blurry on-chain volume data remains.

CLARITY Act remains stalled

The legal framework is still missing. The CLARITY Act is meant to separate the responsibilities of the SEC and the CFTC for digital assets. In July 2025, the House of Representatives passed the bill by 294 to 134 votes. Since then, it has made no progress in the Senate. Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed in early August, a step that would end the debate over merely taking up the bill. The purely procedural vote follows on 15 September 2026. It needs 60 votes, but the Republicans hold only 53 seats. Until lawmakers agree, the agency must base its decisions on existing futures market law — which makes the intermediary routes cleared in May, and any registration Hyperliquid might pursue under them, the practical test of the access Trump described.