Jeff Yan Says Regulate the Renters: His Blockchain Stays Unlicensed 🏛️

Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan wants U.S. financial regulators to oversee the firms building on his blockchain rather than regulate the underlying network itself, arguing that compliance responsibility should sit with the deployers who exercise operational controls. "The regulation sits at the layer where there are controls, and indeed the deployers are the ones that exercise these controls," Yan said Thursday in a Bloomberg interview. His proposal would let Wall Street firms construct trading businesses atop Hyperliquid without requiring the blockchain to register 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."

Hyperliquid, best known for its eponymous perpetual futures trading platform, remains closed to U.S. customers. Kraken parent Payward plans to offer U.S. investors derivatives using Hyperliquid's technology through a regulated exchange, which could add a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated operator to the network even though its perps market stays unavailable to American traders. The comments arrive after President Donald Trump said in August that the CFTC was working to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. under federal regulations. Yan was quoted by Bloomberg on Oct. 15, 2026.