The Hyperliquid Policy Center and trade.xyz have submitted a comprehensive proposal to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission seeking recognition of regulated perpetual contracts tied to West Texas Intermediate crude, Brent crude, and Henry Hub natural gas. According to the August 26 joint filing, the groups argue that U.S. regulators can bring energy perpetual contracts into regulated markets without waiting for new legislation. The proposal responds to the CFTC's June review covering extending standard energy futures to continuous trading and listing perpetual contracts tied to physical or storable energy commodities. The filing calls for a legal path covering contracts with stablecoin margin, leverage limits, and regulated onchain market infrastructure, with exchanges and clearinghouses needing to demonstrate compliance with existing CFTC core principles before operating continuously.
President Trump announced on Wednesday that CFTC Chair Mike Selig is actively working on a way to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. in a 'fully compliant and legal fashion'. The announcement came during a White House event attended by major crypto executives including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, and leaders from Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange. As reported by goodcryptoX, this development represents a significant shift in regulatory approach toward onshore crypto derivatives trading. HYPE surged 22% following the announcement, reflecting market optimism about potential regulatory clarity for U.S. crypto derivatives operations.
According to the latest filing, trade.xyz has generated over $500 billion in trading volume since launching in October 2025, accounting for more than 99% of activity across Hyperliquid's third-party market system, HIP-3. The platform, operated by Unit Labs with a team of about a dozen people, has created perpetual futures tied to crude oil, precious metals, stock indexes, and companies about to go public, including SpaceX. During the US-Iran conflict in February, Trade.xyz contracts broadly tracked traditional oil prices during less volatile periods and provided live sentiment readings while conventional markets were closed. The platform's largest HIP-3 markets include S&P 500 contracts with $450 million open interest, SK Hynix shares, and gold with combined open interest of about $1.2 billion. In March, Trade.xyz partnered with S&P Global Inc. to launch the first officially licensed perpetual contract tied to the S&P 500.
The groups' case centers on continuous trading capabilities during weekends, particularly during geopolitical events when established U.S. futures venues are closed. After Middle East conflict disrupted energy exports on February 28, airlines, refiners and fund managers with crude exposure could not change their positions through regulated U.S. futures markets until trading resumed on Sunday evening. According to the filing, about two-thirds of the oil price change between Friday's close and the benchmark's Sunday reopening had already occurred in the onchain market. Research published by Hyperliquid Policy Center found that across nearly 75% of weekend closures studied, the perpetual contract finished closer to Sunday's opening price than the benchmark's previous Friday close. The platform's annualized revenue run-rate stands at $27 million despite total trading reaching $107 billion in July, while HyperEVM has reached a new all-time high in weekly revenue, exceeding $1 million.
The proposal builds on recent regulatory precedent, with the CFTC approving Kalshi's Bitcoin perp as the first federally regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures contract in the United States in May 2026. The May 29 approval classified BTCPERP as a futures contract even though it has no fixed expiration date. However, energy products require separate consideration because crude oil and natural gas have physical markets, delivery systems, and benchmarks that operate differently from Bitcoin. The CFTC's crypto collateral pilot already permits Bitcoin, Ether and qualifying stablecoins in cleared derivatives transactions, with the groups proposing similar treatment for energy markets. The commission has not approved energy perpetuals, and the public consultation does not guarantee authorization, with CFTC Chair Michael Selig stating the agency needed a 'clear, data-driven record' as regulated entities consider longer trading hours.
The filing proposes that onchain systems can run trading, margin checks, clearing, settlement, and surveillance at all hours. Under trade.xyz's model, positions are funded in advance, while margin is recalculated with each transaction rather than waiting for scheduled settlement periods. According to the filing, standard order-book liquidations have handled 97.9% of all notional volume liquidated across trade.xyz markets, with predefined backstop and tail-loss processes covering the remainder. The groups argue that transactions, margin changes and liquidations appear on a public ledger, allowing regulated operators to conduct real-time surveillance without adding separate reporting requirements for every market participant. A July data integration added Hyperliquid and trade.xyz prices to TradingView, allowing users to monitor onchain markets covering commodities, equities, foreign exchange and crypto outside standard exchange hours.
