HPC asks SEC, CFTC to treat equity perps as security futures

Perpetual contracts have become one of the most liquid instruments in global markets; however, to date, US law has not provided a defined answer to the question of whether they are futures or swaps. 

Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) is trying to get that answer with its comment letter, where it stated that the two categories, futures and swaps, have identical economics but carry different rules on who can trade them and where.

In its letter and an accompanying blog post, HPC pointed to a federal judge who once likened sorting these products to deciding “whether tetrahedrons belong in square or round holes.” 

Novel options, index participations, and volatility-index futures all ran into the same boundary between the agencies over the past four decades, and each dispute stalled new markets for years.

What HPC wants the agencies to do

HPC’s core claim is that a perpetual contract already behaves like a futures contract. It cited the hallmarks courts have long used, such as standardized terms, fungibility, futurity, and the option to close out through an offsetting trade and said the missing expiry date is not disqualifying. 

HPC’s filing is in response to the joint request for comments by the SEC and CFTC on how to further define “swap” and “security-based swap.” 

HPC asks the agencies to carry out four steps, and the first one is to confirm that a qualifying equity perpetual can be listed as a security future.

The second step the HPC is asking the commissions to take is to preserve venues’ current freedom to make listing calls. 

HPC asked the commissions to “keep classification consistent across both agencies” and “modernize the security futures framework” as steps three and four, respectively.

According to the advocacy group, the commissions can take each of the steps without any need for formal rulemaking. It said interpretive guidance policy statements and staff action will get the job done.

Why the $480 billion number is the argument

Independent operators deploying their own perpetual markets in oil, metals, currencies, equity indices, and single stocks have booked more than $480 billion in cumulative notional trading over their first ten months on Hyperliquid. They also hold roughly $4 billion in open interest. However, their liquidity was developed offshore.

According to HPC, if the commissions follow the steps it recommends, they could bring more of that market onshore.

DefiLlama puts Hyperliquid’s cumulative perpetual volume at more than $5 trillion and open interest near $13 billion.

The regulators have also been making moves as the CFTC cleared the first US-listed perpetual, Kalshi’s BTCPERP, as a futures contract on May 29. In its policy statement, the regulator flagged equity perpetuals as products needing joint SEC-CFTC review.

CME Group revived single-stock futures on July 27, the first real activity in the security-futures category in years.

A well-connected campaign with political cover

HPC was launched in February 2026 by the Hyper Foundation with 1 million HYPE tokens, worth about $30 million at the time. The foundation also brought in crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky as the advocacy group’s CEO. 

The effort also has political backing, as President Trump said on August 20 that CFTC Chairman Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the US “in a fully compliant and legal fashion.”

HYPE went up by over 17% following the remark.