Hyperliquid bigger than NASDAQ, says ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher

Sprecher saluted Hyperliquid's team, signaling deeper engagement between Wall Street incumbents and crypto-native rails.

What to know:

• Jeffrey Sprecher, the CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), said at a Bernstein conference that the decentralized crypto derivatives platform Hyperliquid is “bigger than Nasdaq” in trading activity and praised its small core team as “very, very smart people.”
• Hyperliquid, whose HYPE token has a market value far below Nasdaq’s, dominates more than 70 percent of the decentralized perpetual futures market and has attracted non-crypto traders by offering 24/7 oil derivatives trading, including on weekends when ICE’s markets are closed.
• Sprecher argued that Hyperliquid’s unregulated offshore status highlights a regulatory gap under U.S. and European derivatives rules and said he expects policymakers soon to choose between creating a new category for perpetual futures or bringing such venues under existing Dodd-Frank and EMIR regimes.

Jeffrey Sprecher, the founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), called the decentralized perpetual futures venue Hyperliquid "bigger than NASDAQ" at a Bernstein conference this week and disclosed his team has met its founders multiple times, a sign that U.S. exchange incumbents are no longer treating crypto-native trading platforms as fringe.

"This Hyperliquid that we're talking, if you haven't heard about it, it's bigger than NASDAQ, okay? It's 11 people. You look at it, you're like, wow, that's pretty something," Sprecher said in a May 27 fireside chat with Bernstein analyst Chinedu Bolu, calling the team "very, very smart people."

Hyperliquid's HYPE token carries a market capitalization of roughly $15.1 billion against Nasdaq Inc.'s $50 billion as of Thursday, so the comparison doesn't hold by company value.

On daily perpetual futures volume, though, Hyperliquid clears billions of dollars in notional turnover and holds more than 70% of the decentralized perp-DEX market, per industry data.

The "11 people" refers to Hyperliquid Labs, the core development entity, while the broader project draws on open-source contributors and a validator set that runs the underlying Layer-1 blockchain.

Sprecher said ICE took notice partly because Hyperliquid has been trading oil derivatives on weekends when ICE's traditional energy markets are closed, an activity that surged during the recent stretch of Middle East tensions.

JPMorgan analysts have flagged the same pattern, noting non-crypto traders using Hyperliquid's 24/7 markets for off-hours oil exposure. "There have been a lot of activity that happens, a lot of decisions and things happen on the weekend. So it's gotten a lot of interest," Sprecher said.

Under U.S. law, the perpetual futures Hyperliquid offers are swaps, subject to Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act, the post-2008 legislation that prescribes reporting, margining and dealer registration. ICE operates under those rules, while Hyperliquid, an unregulated foreign-incorporated venue, does not.

"Why are you prohibiting us from doing this when it's already happening? And can't we have a level playing field? And by the way, this stuff is global," Sprecher said.

He said he expected the next few months to produce clearer answers, with the choice being either a new category of regulated perpetual future or pulling offshore venues into Dodd-Frank and the European Union's EMIR rules.

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