CME, ICE Urge CFTC to Bring Hyperliquid Under Federal Oversight; DEX Cites Onchain Transparency

Hyperliquid's Washington, D.C., policy arm moved to address a Bloomberg report claiming major U.S. exchanges are pressing regulators to tighten scrutiny of the decentralized platform. Bloomberg said CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) have lobbied the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and lawmakers to place Hyperliquid under federal supervision. Their argument centers on the venue's anonymous, onchain trading and growing volumes in crypto and commodity-linked markets, which they say could affect price discovery in benchmark-sensitive sectors, including oil, and increase risks tied to market manipulation or sanctions evasion. The request: require Hyperliquid to register with the CFTC. Such registration typically involves customer identification programs and formal trade surveillance, steps that conflict with Hyperliquid's intentionally anonymous setup. In response, the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC), led by CEO Jake Chervisnky, rejected the allegations in posts on X, calling them "unfounded." HPC said Hyperliquid is highly transparent because every trade is published onchain in real time, giving regulators and law enforcement clearer data for monitoring and investigations than some offchain venues. HPC also defended 24/7 trading as a market-efficiency feature, arguing that continuous trading can smooth price discovery across time zones and reduce gap-driven dislocations that occur when traditional exchanges are closed. HPC acknowledged one point raised in the report: U.S. law is not yet well tailored to derivatives markets operating on public blockchains. The group said it will continue engaging policymakers on bringing onchain derivatives within an appropriate regulatory perimeter. Some coverage, including The Defiant, characterized the lobbying effort as potentially driven by incumbent interests. CME is expanding its own round-the-clock crypto lineup, with Bitcoin Volatility Futures set to launch June 1 and Nasdaq CME Crypto Index Futures (covering BTC, ETH, XRP and others) slated for June 8. Market snapshot: Hyperliquid's token HYPE was last at $44.60, up 1.6% over 24 hours and nearly 4% over the past seven days. Image/chart credits: featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com.