Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan says U.S. regulators should supervise financial companies that use his blockchain rather than impose direct oversight on the underlying network.
Speaking to Bloomberg on Thursday, Yan argued that companies operating trading platforms on Hyperliquid should bear responsibility for complying with financial regulations. He compared the arrangement to financial institutions using internet infrastructure, where regulatory obligations fall on the businesses providing services rather than the underlying technology.
Yan said regulation should apply at the level where operational controls exist, emphasizing that the companies deploying the technology are the ones exercising those controls.
Hyperliquid is primarily known for its perpetual futures trading platform, which remains inaccessible to customers in the United States.
However, Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, is preparing to offer U.S. investors access to derivatives powered by Hyperliquid technology through a regulated exchange. This could introduce an operator regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) into the ecosystem, even as Hyperliquid’s own perpetual futures market remains unavailable to American traders.
Yan’s approach would allow traditional financial firms to build and operate trading services using Hyperliquid’s blockchain without requiring the network itself to obtain approval or function as a regulated exchange. Instead, individual operators would remain accountable for meeting the rules applicable to their businesses.
Yan said Hyperliquid was not intended to replace existing financial market infrastructure, adding that its technology could also provide benefits to firms operating markets through conventional systems.
His comments follow remarks by President Donald Trump in August, when Trump said the CFTC was working to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. market within a federal regulatory framework.
