Hyperliquid Treasury Firm Applies to Run a US Futures Brokerage Arm

By Coinvote

Published November 7, 2026 - 11:22 UTC | 5 mins read

Hyperliquid Treasury Firm Applies to Run a US Futures Brokerage Arm

Nasdaq-listed Hyperliquid Strategies has applied to become a US futures commission merchant, a step toward regulated perpetual futures trading on Hyperliquid. The filing came alongside $785 million of HYPE purchases and still needs regulatory approval with no stated timeline.

A token holder applies to become a broker

In results published Thursday, Hyperliquid Strategies, a Nasdaq-listed company with the ticker PURR, disclosed that one of its subsidiaries filed an application for FCM status, meaning registration as a futures commission merchant. Decrypt reported that the unit would carry US client accounts for permissioned markets built on Hyperliquid. Approval would open a regulated channel for US residents to trade perpetual futures on those markets.

CoinDesk described the effort as an attempt to establish a US FCM with full compliance for activity with American clients, and noted that the timing is uncertain. Cointelegraph quoted CEO David Schamis as saying that owning HYPE is how the company aims to capture protocol economics, while the FCM is how it intends to bring markets deployed on Hyperliquid onshore.

The move changes what the company is. Until now it was mainly a vehicle for holding a token. An FCM would give it an operating business with customer accounts, which is a different kind of exposure to Hyperliquid's growth.

Why an FCM matters for onchain perpetuals

An FCM is a broker registered with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It holds customer funds and handles futures orders. Decrypt noted that Hyperliquid, one of the main onchain venues for perpetual futures, still blocks US users.

Perpetual futures are derivative contracts without a set expiry, and traders use them to hold leveraged positions. Their popularity onchain has largely grown outside the US regulatory perimeter. A registered broker sitting between American customers and the protocol is one way to bridge that gap.

The route runs through Hyperliquid's HIP-3 framework. Cointelegraph explained that independent operators can launch custom perpetual markets on the protocol by staking 500,000 HYPE, valued at $38.8 million in its report. Proposed HIP-3 features would let operators restrict participation to approved addresses. Decrypt called the permissioned version HIP-3* and said Hyperliquid would act as neutral infrastructure while a regulated deployer runs the market.

The quarter in numbers

The results show how heavily the company leaned into HYPE during the period ended Sept. 30. The figures below come from Decrypt and Cointelegraph, which agree on the main items.

Equity raised: $911 million, according to both outlets.
HYPE purchased: $785 million for 9.1 million tokens.
Share buybacks: $17 million to repurchase 2.7 million PURR shares.
Holdings at Sept. 30: 38.5 million HYPE, worth about $3.5 billion at the time.
Net income: $620.6 million, driven almost entirely by $803 million in unrealized gains, per Decrypt.

Paper profit and a lower token price

Decrypt reported that the unrealized gains came as HYPE rose from about $65 to $91 over the quarter. The Defiant framed the profit the same way in its headline, calling it a paper gain. It added that the token's market price stood roughly 14% under the level applied to value the holdings at quarter-end.

That gap matters for reading the headline profit. Gains on tokens that have not been sold can shrink or reverse when the price moves. HYPE changed hands at $78.26 on Nov. 7, down 10.2% over seven days and below its all-time high of $97.96 set on Sept. 23.

Cointelegraph added a market reaction that the other outlets did not. It reported that PURR shares fell 9.6% on Thursday, closing at $8.76, citing Yahoo Finance. None of the outlets say whether the decline was tied to the FCM filing or to the earnings release.

How the reports compare and who else is moving in

The four outlets agree on the core facts: the application, the need for approval, and the absence of a timeline. Decrypt offers the most detail on mechanics and on competitors, while Cointelegraph focuses on the capital figures and the share price. CoinDesk and The Defiant were available only through their headlines and summaries, so their coverage supports only the compliance framing, the uncertain timing and the paper-gain point.

Decrypt said the company is not alone. It reported that Payward, the parent of Kraken, intends to launch HIP-3* markets on Bitnomial, an exchange regulated by the CFTC, and that NinjaTrader Clearing would act as the FCM. It also said Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, agreed last week to work with Trade[XYZ] on Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures for the US, and that HYPE rose 13% afterward.

Cointelegraph dated the ICE announcement to Oct. 29 and said it is subject to regulatory approvals, with ICE planning a dedicated market and clearing structure. According to Decrypt, Trade[XYZ] currently operates Hyperliquid markets, among them a perpetual contract that tracks the S&P 500.

Why it matters and what to watch

Decrypt noted that greater US activity on Hyperliquid would probably raise fee income for the protocol, and the protocol spends that revenue on HYPE buybacks. Schamis made a similar point to Cointelegraph, saying nearly all of the value from fee-generating activity flows back to HYPE holders through programmatic buybacks. That link between volume, fees and buybacks is the mechanism behind the company's pitch.

Several questions remain open. Approval is needed from regulators for the FCM registration as well as for the permissioned HIP-3 markets that it would support, and no schedule has been provided by the company. It is unclear how the company's application would sit alongside the ICE and Payward plans. It is also unclear how the three efforts would divide US customers if all were approved.

Holders and project teams can track the filings and any regulatory decisions directly. They can also watch the company's next quarterly report for updated holdings and for how it values them against the current HYPE price.

Market snapshot

Asset	Price	24h	7d	Market cap
Bitcoin (BTC)	$75,886	-0.1%	-1.9%	$1.53 trillion
Hyperliquid (HYPE)	$78.26	+0.2%	-10.2%	$18.74 billion

CoinGecko data as of 2026-11-07 (UTC).

FAQ

What did Hyperliquid Strategies apply for?

A subsidiary of the Nasdaq-listed company applied to become a US futures commission merchant. If approved, it would carry US client accounts for permissioned markets built on Hyperliquid, according to Decrypt and Cointelegraph.

Can Americans trade Hyperliquid perpetuals now?

Decrypt reported that Hyperliquid still blocks US users. The FCM application and the proposed permissioned markets both need regulatory approval, and the company has given no timeline.

How much HYPE does Hyperliquid Strategies hold?

The company held 38.5 million HYPE at the end of September, valued at about $3.5 billion at the time. It spent $785 million buying 9.1 million tokens during the quarter.