Hyperliquid’s HYPE token climbed sharply on Thursday after Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, announced plans to help bring perpetual futures built on Hyperliquid to the United States.
HYPE rose about 13% to roughly $91, according to Decrypt. On KuCoin, the token moved from a daily open of $80.69 to an intraday high of $92.10. That left it around 7% below the record near $98 reached in September. Hyperliquid’s token was valued at approximately $22.4 billion at the time of the report.
The announcement links one of the world’s largest traditional market operators with a crypto-native trading platform whose exchange is not currently available to US users. However, the proposed product still requires regulatory approvals, and the companies have not provided a launch date.
ICE and Trade[XYZ] set out US expansion plan
ICE and Trade[XYZ], which operates markets for real-world assets on Hyperliquid, have signed a definitive agreement. Under the deal, ICE would become the exclusive operator of Trade[XYZ]’s regulated markets and would take a strategic stake in the company, subject to approval from regulators.
ICE plans to create a dedicated retail market and clearing structure for the proposed product. The company also intends to seek the permissions needed to support leveraged trading in the United States.
Perpetual futures are derivatives that do not have an expiry date. They allow traders to take long or short positions and can involve leverage, which magnifies exposure by using borrowed funds. Trade[XYZ] already offers eligible customers outside the US round-the-clock perpetual contracts linked to stocks, equity indexes, commodities and currencies. Hyperliquid supplies the underlying infrastructure for those markets.
The proposed US service would be aimed at retail participants, a new area for ICE. The exchange operator says more than 99% of its current participation is institutional. ICE Chair and Chief Executive Jeffrey Sprecher described perpetual futures as an addition to, rather than a replacement for, the company’s existing futures markets. The new business would be operated separately from ICE’s institutional futures and clearing franchise.
Regulatory path remains open
The planned markets are intended to comply with know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering requirements. In practice, that means customers would need to complete identity checks before accessing the service.
Verified users would connect through futures commission merchants, the brokers that maintain customer futures accounts. ICE also plans to distribute the product through its joint venture with crypto exchange OKX, although that arrangement has its own pending approvals. ICE invested in OKX in March at a valuation of $25 billion.
Hyperliquid’s exchange is currently geofenced in the United States, meaning access from the country is restricted. President Donald Trump said in August that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was working to allow Hyperliquid to operate legally in the US, but the announcement did not establish when that could happen.
The absence of a launch date underscores that the agreement is an initial step rather than the immediate arrival of a US perpetual-futures market. The transaction, the planned market structure and the distribution arrangements all remain subject to the relevant regulatory process.
Stan Druckenmiller, the macro investor and former head of Duquesne Capital, publicly supported the partnership as an investor in Trade[XYZ]. He said on X that he was looking forward to using the product as part of his investment process. His backing adds a prominent traditional-markets name to a deal that seeks to connect crypto-based infrastructure with regulated US trading.
Market picture
Moneyiar market data at 22:39 on October 25, 2026, showed HYPE at $76.815565148, up 0.63% over 24 hours but down 1.71% over seven days. The data therefore predates the Thursday move reported after ICE’s announcement and is not a real-time measure of the approximately $91 level cited in the news report.
Other selected assets in the same Moneyiar snapshot showed Uniswap at $6.9787690874, up 2.51% over 24 hours and down 2.12% over seven days; Ontology at $0.0501456474, down 0.93% in 24 hours and 1.73% over seven days; and Movement at $0.0070930391, down 0.02% in 24 hours and 5.33% over seven days.
The broader backdrop mentioned in the report included the Federal Reserve holding its policy rate in a 3.75% to 4% range in a 10-2 vote. Two officials preferred a rate increase. WTI crude was trading near $100, while the 10-year US Treasury yield was around 5%.
