Jeffrey Sprecher, founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), called decentralized perpetual futures platform Hyperliquid “bigger than NASDAQ” at a conference at Bernstein this week and revealed that his team had met with its founders several times, a sign that US incumbents no longer treat crypto-native trading platforms as fringe.
“This hyperliquid thing we’re talking about, if you haven’t heard of it, it’s bigger than NASDAQ, okay? It’s got 11 people. You look at it, you’re like, wow, that’s something,” Sprecher said in a May 27 fireside chat with Bernstein analyst Chinedu Bolu, calling the team “very, very smart people.”
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token has a market cap of about $15.1 billion, compared to Nasdaq Inc.’s $50 billion as of Thursday, so the comparison doesn’t take into account the company’s value.
However, on daily volume in perpetual futures contracts, Hyperliquid generates billions of dollars in notional turnover and holds more than 70% of the decentralized perp-DEX market, according to industry data.
The “11 people” refers to Hyperliquid Labs, the lead development entity, while the broader project relies on open source contributors and a set of validators who run the underlying layer 1 blockchain.
Sprecher said ICE noticed this in part because Hyperliquid traded oil derivatives on weekends when ICE’s traditional energy markets were closed, activity that boomed during the recent period of tensions in the Middle East.
JPMorgan analysts reported the same trend, noting that non-crypto traders are using Hyperliquid’s 24/7 markets to gain exposure to oil after hours. “There was a lot of activity, a lot of decisions and things happening over the weekend, so there was a lot of interest in that,” Sprecher said.
Under U.S. law, Hyperliquid perpetual futures offerings are swaps, subject to Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act, the post-2008 legislation that mandates reporting, margining and dealer registration. ICE operates under these rules, unlike Hyperliquid, an unregulated foreign company.
“Why are you banning us from doing this when it’s already happening? And can’t we have a level playing field? And by the way, this phenomenon is global,” Sprecher said.
He said he expected the coming months to produce clearer answers, with the choice being either to adopt a new category of regulated perpetual futures or to bring offshore venues under the European Union’s Dodd-Frank and EMIR rules.
