President Donald Trump says CFTC Chair Michael Selig is working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States. The offshore perpetuals platform would enter the market in a “fully compliant and legal fashion,” he said. HYPE jumped 17% in 24 hours.
Trump made the remarks Wednesday at a White House meeting with crypto and finance executives. The gathering came one day before the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee holds its first session. CFTC Chair Michael Selig, SEC Chair Paul Atkins, and White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt sat in. The Block broke the story.
“I understand that Mike is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion,” Trump said, according to The Block. “Working very hard on that. We would really like to see it.” Decrypt ran a longer cut of the same comments.
The price action was sharp. HYPE climbed 17% over the past 24 hours, per The Block’s data. Hyperliquid-linked exchange products moved harder. The 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF (THYP), Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP), and Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF (HYPG) each rose nearly 20% Wednesday. Nasdaq-listed Hyperliquid Strategies (PURR) gained 30.4% on the day.
What does this mean in practice? The remarks sketch a path for an onchain perpetuals platform that currently operates offshore to obtain a U.S. license. But neither source disclosed a formal CFTC application. No regulatory filing. No timeline. No statement from Hyperliquid itself appears in either report.
Selig has signaled interest in onchain markets since at least June. He told a Bankless interview the technology would “transform our markets” and that the agency “want[s] to create a path to bring these onchain markets into the United States and make sure they comply with some form of regulation.”
The CFTC cracked the door for bitcoin perpetual futures in the U.S. when its staff greenlit KalshiEX and Coinbase to list the products. Since then, onchain perpetual platforms like Hyperliquid have surged. JPMorgan analysts say non-crypto traders are increasingly turning to 24/7 markets. Traditional exchanges CME and ICE have pushed back. Platforms like Hyperliquid could be used to manipulate prices, they argue, and should register with the CFTC. Bloomberg reported the concerns.
Those traditional-exchange concerns center on the same onchain design that pulled in crypto-native volume. Any CFTC framework for Hyperliquid would likely require registration, compliance, and market-integrity oversight. Neither source specifies what the agency would demand.
Trump also used the meeting to press Congress on legislation. He urged lawmakers to pass “a fair version” of the Clarity Act. “It’s a very, very powerful structure legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else,” he said, according to Decrypt. The bill is expected to return to the Senate floor in September. Lawmakers left for August recess without holding a procedural vote. Republicans still need roughly six Democratic votes to reach the 60-vote threshold, Decrypt reported.
Time is short. The Clarity Act has faced repeated setbacks and has limited time to clear Congress before year-end, The Block noted. Separately, the SEC on Tuesday proposed rules that would exempt certain token offerings from securities regulations.
One telling detail: executives from Kalshi and Polymarket were not invited. Politico reported the White House decided to keep the gathering focused solely on crypto.
