Trump Says CFTC to Onshore Hyperliquid, Pre-announcement Bets Draw Scrutiny

Trump made the remarks in the Roosevelt Room at a White House meeting with crypto and technology executives on US innovation leadership, singling out Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Michael Selig as leading the push.

"I understand that Mike is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion," Trump said. "Working very hard on that. We would really like to see it."

The gathering drew Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong, the Winklevoss twins of Gemini, Kraken co-chief executive Arjun Sethi and Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev alongside Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Paul Atkins and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) chairman and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher.

HYPE and PURR jump

HYPE, Hyperliquid's native token, was trading near $70 by 01:00UTC on 20 Aug, up almost 20% intraday, per TradingView data. Hyperliquid Strategies Inc (Nasdaq: PURR), the Nasdaq-listed digital asset treasury company that accumulates HYPE, closed 30% higher at $9.39, extending its year-to-date gain to more than 160%. The stock added a further 5.1% in overnight trading. 

Shares of established US derivatives operators fell: Cboe Global Markets closed 3.5% lower, Miami International Holdings 3.1% and CME Group 1.7%.

The mechanics of any US onshoring path remain undefined. Hyperliquid's operating structure sits offshore, with US access blocked under the platform's terms of service, and neither the White House nor the CFTC has outlined what a compliant American version would look like.

"You have to figure out how to make it work with rules existing today," David Schamis, Hyperliquid Strategies chief executive, told CNBC after the close, referring to the challenge of onshoring Hyperliquid without waiting for pending crypto market structure legislation.

CME and ICE lobby

The comments capped months of debate in Washington. In May, CME Group and ICE lobbied the CFTC and members of Congress to bring Hyperliquid under US oversight, citing risks of market manipulation, sanctions evasion and benchmark distortion in oil derivatives. Oil-linked perpetual volumes averaged more than $700mn a day on the platform in April as the Iran conflict drove traders to 24/7 markets. 

The Hyper Foundation had already made its own move, funding the independent Hyperliquid Policy Center, established on 18 Feb with a 1mn HYPE grant (worth about $28mn at the time). Founder and chief executive Jake Chervinsky, formerly chief legal officer at venture firm Variant and chief policy officer at the Blockchain Association, leads it.

Options bet raises eyebrows

Trading in options on Hyperliquid Strategies around Trump's remarks has drawn scrutiny. Volumes in PURR ran at nearly eight times the 30-day average, with more than 120,000 calls trading against fewer than 8,000 puts, CNBC reported. Calls give holders the right to buy at a set price and gain value if the underlying stock rises; a call-heavy skew of that magnitude indicates traders positioning for a jump. 

Some of the buying came hours before the president spoke. Around 15:00UTC, roughly four hours ahead of the remarks, one trader paid about $65,000 for 719 call contracts expiring in October at a strike price of $8, each covering 100 shares. The position had just 67 open contracts coming into the session. By the close, those calls were worth roughly $2.45 apiece, per CNBC, valuing the block at about $176,000, an unrealized gain near $111,000 on the day.

CNBC contributor Dennis Davitt, co-founder of investment firm Millbank Dartmoor Portsmouth, said of the pre-announcement buyers: "I hope they have a robust alibi."