Timeline
- 7.5
CFTC Chair Moves to Draft Crypto Market Rules as Clarity Act Stalls
CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig told the inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting that he has directed staff to explore crypto market structure rules using the agency's existing authority. He said the CFTC will formally propose those rules if Congress fails to pass the Clarity Act. If Congress does not act, the CFTC could unilaterally bring crypto exchanges, leveraged trading, and on-chain finance protocols under its oversight, reshaping U.S. crypto market structure. This would affect exchanges, developers, and investors even without new legislation. The potential framework could cover current CFTC registrants and currently unregistered crypto exchanges, allowing leveraged or margined crypto trading under tailored rules. Selig also directed staff to engage with developers of on-chain finance protocols to establish legal and compliant ways to offer their protocols in the U.S.
- 8.5
HYPE Token Surges as Trump Says CFTC Working to Bring Hyperliquid to US
President Trump announced that CFTC Chair Mike Selig is working to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. in a 'fully compliant and legal fashion,' and the HYPE token surged on the news. This marks a rare direct presidential endorsement of a specific crypto platform, signaling potential regulatory approval and US market access for Hyperliquid. If completed, it could set a precedent for how decentralized exchanges are treated under US commodities law and boost the broader DeFi sector. The statement names CFTC Chair Mike Selig as the lead, indicating the CFTC rather than the SEC is taking the primary role. The token's surge reflects market optimism, but the plan remains a statement, not a final rule or formal approval.
- 7.5
Hyperliquid RWA perps boom erodes revenue backing HYPE
Hyperliquid's open interest hit a record above $11 billion and 30-day volume reached nearly $178 billion, yet gross protocol revenue fell for a fourth straight quarter to about $202 million in Q2 2026. The gap stems from HIP-3 fee sharing, which now routes roughly half of perp volume through builder-deployed markets that keep up to half the trading fees. This reveals a structural shift in Hyperliquid's economics: record usage is increasingly unprofitable for the protocol because fee-sharing funnels revenue to external builders. Since the Assistance Fund's HYPE buyback is a fixed share of earnings, shrinking revenue means less HYPE is retired, directly weakening the earnings story that underpins token valuation. RWA perps on assets like gold, crude oil, Nvidia, Tesla, the Nasdaq-100 and pre-IPO SpaceX reached a record $3.6 billion in open interest and overtook bitcoin as Hyperliquid's largest perp market. However, Trade.xyz accounts for over 90% of HIP-3 open interest, and a single trade on a thin Korean pre-market venue dropped its SK Hynix contract 19% on Monday, triggering reimbursements.