Hyperliquid Policy Chief Jake Chervinsky: KYC Required for Entry into the U.S.
Hyperliquid Policy Center CEO Jake Chervinsky stated in an interview with The Rollup that on-chain finance must comply with identity verification and anti-money laundering requirements to enter the U.S.; future technologies must enable on-chain intermediaries to meet the rules of the SEC, CFTC, and Treasury, with the two market regulators coordinating to clarify the path for entry into the U.S.
The center was established in February 2026, with Chervinsky as CEO and initial funding publicly disclosed as approximately $29 million worth of HYPE, focusing on independent research and lobbying, advocating for decentralized finance to remain in the U.S. Chervinsky previously served as Chief Legal Officer at Variant and held positions at the Blockchain Association. The strategy is not to allow unverified protocols to directly face U.S. users, but to establish HyperCore as neutral infrastructure: licensed entities will build and deploy products on it, taking on verification obligations. A permissioned HIP-3 exchange model has emerged in the testnet to connect with the U.S. structure that separates designated contract markets, clearing, and brokerage registrations.
In a White House briefing on August 19, Donald Trump specifically mentioned Hyperliquid, stating that Chairman Mike Selig is researching compliance pathways for entry. Chervinsky noted that the team was unaware beforehand, but it indicates that the committee is seriously considering the proposal, although details have yet to be finalized. Reports also indicate that Kraken's parent company Payward is discussing with Hyperliquid Labs, with regulated Bitnomial offering some related perpetual contracts to U.S. users, pending approval. The committee has recently classified some digital asset perpetuals as futures rather than swaps. The collaboration between Circle and Hyperliquid regarding U.S. dollar stablecoins was also mentioned within the same interview timeline.
Buyers are licensed brokers, futures traders, and protocols wishing to retain U.S. traffic; sellers are the technical and legal structures that take on verification and reporting obligations at the front end. The driving force is regulatory coordination and high-level mentions, not trading volume. Funds are allocated from tokens into lobbying and licensing layer development. Beneficiaries are U.S. intermediaries capable of performing KYC at the licensing layer; those under pressure are the front ends that insist on no identity and no geographical restrictions but wish to tap into U.S. perpetual demand.
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Chervinsky frames entry into the U.S. as an intermediary issue, rather than the legality of the chain itself. The Commodity Exchange Act requires someone to provide the product, and the committee must connect the registration framework to the public chain. The Policy Center's solution is layered: the bottom layer remains permissionless, while U.S. companies perform verification, reporting, and custody at the licensed tier. The $29 million token budget buys time in Washington and a framework that can gain the committee's approval. Trump's mention moves the timeline from industry meetings to the chairman's office, but it does not mean the rules are finalized.
The capital pathway is "infrastructure neutral, compliance outsourced to licensees." The appearance of names like Bitnomial and Payward suggests that U.S. perpetual demand may first go through regulated futures channels rather than opening the mainnet directly. Circle's stablecoin provides settlement in U.S. dollars. HIP-3 transforms the permissionless order book into a switchable permissioned market, reserving interfaces for the designated contract market's role division. Chervinsky's background at Variant and the association allows him to speak to both funds and Congress.
In comparison to early Bitcoin exchanges obtaining state licenses before federal ones, and swap execution facilities pushing OTC swaps into regulated venues: for perpetual contracts to enter the U.S., they must first be recognized by the committee as more like futures. The industry phase is that offshore liquidity is present, while onshore rules are being defined. The SEC and CFTC are coordinating to decide which door equity perpetuals and commodity perpetuals will go through.
Structural changes reflect regulatory changes. The mechanism is: anti-money laundering obligations fall on "who faces the customer," not on "who wrote the matching engine." Those who can integrate verification into on-chain intermediaries without turning the entire protocol into a broker can bring U.S. orders back to the same liquidity pool; those who insist on not doing identity at the front end will be left outside geographical restrictions.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
- Chains can be permissionless, but those facing U.S. customers cannot.
- Neutral infrastructure must rely on the licensed tier to access the largest market.
- High-level mentions accelerate the agenda; only completing the details counts as entry.