Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is partnering with Trade[XYZ], one of the major builders of markets on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid [HYPE], to introduce a regulated perpetual futures market in the United States.
According to Bloomberg, the plan is to bring perpetual futures trading for traditional financial assets and cryptocurrencies into the U.S. market. However, this remains subject to approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) agency.
This is because access to such products remains limited for U.S. investors because of regulatory restrictions.
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All about the ICE-Trade [XYZ] agreement
Under the agreement, ICE and Trade[XYZ] plan to list perpetual futures linked to equities, stock market indices, commodities, foreign exchange (FX), and cryptocurrencies.
That said, the contracts would be accessible through participating brokers and trading platforms. In fact, the planned infrastructure would also include clearing systems, alongside know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance measures.
At the same time, clearing (the back-end system) would help manage counterparty risk and ensure trades are processed and settled according to the applicable rules. Lastly, ICE will also make a strategic equity investment in Trade[XYZ], although the financial terms have not been disclosed yet.
Why was Hyperliquid builder a good choice, though?
This comes as Trade[XYZ] has established a significant presence on Hyperliquid, reporting more than $650 billion in trading volume in just over a year.
Additionally, its builder-deployed markets account for roughly half of Hyperliquid’s trading activity.
Simultaneously, the company secured a license for an S&P 500 perpetual contract in March and has also introduced products tied to assets such as crude oil and equity benchmarks.
Therefore, the partnership could bridge traditional financial markets and blockchain-based derivatives trading by combining ICE’s exchange and clearing expertise with Trade[XYZ]’s experience in decentralized markets.
Other platforms sailing the same boat
Additionally, Payward, Kraken’s parent company, also plans to introduce on-chain perpetual futures for eligible U.S. traders through Hyperliquid, pending regulatory approval.
At the same time, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek announced that the company received SEC authorization to offer tokenized stock perpetual futures in the U.S. through its new futures exchange, OG.com, following discussions with the SEC and CFTC.
Interestingly, all this followed Ark Invest questioning Hyperliquid’s ambition to become an “everything exchange,” citing limited decentralization, an anonymous team, and negligible spot trading.
Final Summary
- With this, ICE plans to bring perpetual futures trading for traditional financial assets and cryptocurrencies into the U.S. market.
- Trade[XYZ] has established a significant presence on Hyperliquid, reporting more than $650 billion in trading volume in just over a year.
