Hyperliquid Policy Center Letter to CFTC: Advancing Perpetual Contracts as a Key Derivatives Innovation Focus

BlockBeats News, August 27, Hyperliquid Policy Center stated in a post that perpetual contracts should be at the core of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) innovation agenda. The institution has submitted a statement to the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee's inaugural meeting on August 20, noting that perpetual contracts, beyond the digital asset market, are gradually expanding to traditional asset classes such as stocks and commodities, and U.S. market participants' demand for this product is rising.

Perpetual contracts can meet the risk management needs of different market participants, especially suitable for airlines to hedge fuel costs, investment funds to manage portfolio exposure, and AI developers to cope with ongoing, indefinite risk exposure such as computational costs. Compared to futures with fixed expiration dates, perpetual contracts do not require monthly expiration, do not have expiration and delivery issues, and anchor the contract price to the underlying asset through regular funding rates.

Currently, on Hyperliquid, perpetual contracts deployed by third-party developers cover over 80 traditional commodity and stock markets, with a total nominal trading volume exceeding $500 billion. CFTC has taken multiple actions this year to promote the landing of perpetual contract markets in the U.S. In May, CFTC approved the first perpetual futures contract listed in the U.S. and issued a policy statement and continuous trading guidance on perpetual contract listing; In June, CFTC sought public comments on expanding perpetual contracts to energy commodities and further consulted on computational derivatives.

In addition, the Hyperliquid Policy Center believes that on-chain infrastructure can also promote the modernization of the U.S. derivatives market within the existing regulatory framework. Public blockchains can publicly record markets, orders, and positions, continuously conduct margin assessments programmatically, and achieve real-time collateral transfers, thereby reducing counterparty credit risk and settlement risk.

It will continue to provide relevant research and technical documents to the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee and committee staff and promote the establishment of a pathway for U.S. market participants to compliantly access on-chain markets. The institution believes that perpetual contracts are one of the most representative financial innovations of the past decade and should further develop in the U.S. market.