Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan urges regulators to target deployers, not underlying blockchain

Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan wants U.S. regulators to oversee financial firms using his blockchain rather than the network itself.

Companies operating trading markets on Hyperliquid should be responsible for meeting regulatory requirements, much like financial firms using internet infrastructure, Yan said Thursday in a Bloomberg interview.

“The regulation sits at the layer where there are controls, and indeed the deployers are the ones that exercise these controls,” Yan said.

Hyperliquid, best known for its eponymous perpetual futures trading platform, remains closed to U.S. customers.

However, Kraken’s parent company, Payward, plans to offer investors in the country derivatives using Hyperliquid’s technology through a regulated exchange. For Hyperliquid, this means it could add a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulated operator even though its perps market remains unavailable to U.S. customers.

Yan’s proposal would allow Wall Street firms to build trading businesses on Hyperliquid without requiring the blockchain itself to operate as a regulated exchange.

“We’re not trying to displace anything,” Yan said. “In fact, I think the technology can benefit everyone who currently operates markets in a more traditional setting.”

His comments come after President Donald Trump said in August that the CFTC was working to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. under federal regulations.