Hyperliquid Founder Jeff Yan Says US Expansion Hinges on Regulatory Compliance by Platform Operators

Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan has outlined the decentralized derivatives exchange's strategy for entering the US market.

Bloomberg reported on November 3 that, in a recent interview in Washington, Yan said Hyperliquid is pursuing a framework under which individual businesses using its platform would comply with local regulations as part of the company's US expansion.

Yan stressed that Hyperliquid is not just a crypto exchange, but blockchain-based infrastructure that can support a range of financial trading services. In the US, he said, it would make more sense for businesses offering services on top of the platform to meet regulatory requirements such as know-your-customer checks and market surveillance, rather than for Hyperliquid itself to secure an exchange license.

To support that approach, Hyperliquid began pilot testing a new trading system in September 2025 with identity-verification features. That same month, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken announced plans to use the technology to offer Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures products to US investors.

Hyperliquid has grown around crypto perpetual futures trading since launching its service in 2023. Revenue over the past 12 months has reached $713 million. Its HIP-3 upgrade, introduced last year, also allows outside operators to launch derivatives markets tied to underlying assets including stocks, gold and crude oil.

Cumulative trading volume on Trade.xyz, a HIP-3-based trading platform, has surpassed $500 billion. Trading volume in Hyperliquid's real-world-asset-linked products also exceeded $115 billion in July alone. The growth is drawing attention from established exchanges. Intercontinental Exchange recently invested in Trade.xyz and agreed to introduce related products in the US, subject to regulatory approval.

The US government is also watching Hyperliquid's potential market entry. President Donald Trump has said regulators are working to allow Hyperliquid to serve US investors. For now, Hyperliquid officially restricts US users from accessing its platform.

Yan also identified real-world asset tokenization, or RWA, as a future area for expansion. He said he is interested in a market for trading tokenized high-quality real-world assets and suggested the platform's scope could broaden to products tied to tokenized shares of large companies. Any such launch, however, would depend on decisions by outside businesses building on the platform.