Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has proposed giving eligible U.S. customers access to Hyperliquid’s onchain perpetual futures markets through its CFTC-regulated Bitnomial exchange, with Ninjatrader Clearing carrying customer accounts, subject to regulatory approval and allowlists. The plan would initially use HIP-3, Hyperliquid’s first builder-deployed permissioned perpetual markets, whose preliminary versions are live on testnet. Ark Invest head of crypto research Lorenzo Valente questioned whether a U.S. route could share liquidity with Hyperliquid’s permissionless market, saying separation could create an inferior product, while also citing the platform’s limited decentralization and minimal spot trading. Hyperliquid recorded about $271 million in spot volume, $12 billion in perpetuals volume and $16 billion in open interest over a recent 24-hour period, compared with approximately $9 billion in average second-quarter open interest, up 54% year over year. The platform is expanding into prediction markets, real-world asset perpetuals and native borrowing, but whether those activities generate sufficient fees and HYPE buybacks to support the token remains uncertain.