ICE Eyes Partnership With Hyperliquid After CEO Praise
NYSE parent ICE is weighing a partnership with Hyperliquid after CEO Jeff Sprecher called the decentralized exchange ‘bigger than Nasdaq’ and confirmed multiple meetings.
Intercontinental Exchange, parent of the New York Stock Exchange, is exploring a possible partnership with Hyperliquid after CEO Jeff Sprecher described the decentralized derivatives protocol as ‘bigger than Nasdaq’ at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decision Conference.
At the conference, Sprecher confirmed he has met multiple times with Hyperliquid’s founders over the past month and praised the technical talent behind the protocol. He called the team ‘extremely smart’ and highlighted that the platform was built by a small group of developers.
About two weeks earlier, ICE and the CME Group coordinated lobbying in Washington and met with officials at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to raise concerns about Hyperliquid’s offshore trading structure. Executives from the legacy exchanges flagged risks tied to unregulated, 24/7 oil perpetual contracts on the platform, which recently averaged more than $1 billion in daily trading volume.
Those executives warned such trading could affect global oil benchmarks and present avenues for sanctions evasion. Sprecher addressed the contrast between public regulatory pressure and private talks, describing the conversations as reciprocal learning: ‘We are actually engaging with these people, understanding what they are doing. They are learning about our world, and we are learning about theirs.’
Hyperliquid offers synthetic derivatives that let retail traders take leveraged positions on commodities and single-name equities around the clock. The platform has drawn attention for pre-market trading products that allow wagers on companies expected to go public, including trading tied to SpaceX ahead of an anticipated IPO in June.
Sprecher said institutional clients are watching the decentralized price signals produced by such trading and suggested concentrated retail leverage on Hyperliquid may influence pricing in traditional markets.
ICE has not announced any formal agreement with Hyperliquid. Sprecher framed recent contacts as exploratory discussions that could cover technology collaboration, product development or other commercial links, without specifying a timeline.
Regulators continue to assess whether offshore crypto-native trading venues operating outside standard U.S. oversight create risks to market integrity or national security. ICE and CME urged the CFTC to consider potential for market manipulation and sanctions circumvention tied to anonymous or lightly regulated trading venues. Hyperliquid’s operators describe their protocol as decentralized and global, emphasizing open access and continuous trading.
No definitive commercial deal has been made public. Market participants, exchange operators and regulators are monitoring developments as talks proceed.
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