On May 27, Jeff Sprecher, founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), offered a rare, emotionally charged evaluation of Hyperliquid during an interview at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decision Conference.
“Hyperliquid, which we’re discussing here—if you haven’t heard of it yet, it’s bigger than Nasdaq, okay? Eleven people. When you see this, you’ll say, wow, that’s incredible,” said Sprecher. He added: “I love this. I wish I were younger so I could jump in and do it myself. By the way, people behind this are becoming billionaires in droves.”
ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, also operates one of the world’s largest energy futures markets. Sprecher’s statement represents the most direct public endorsement of Hyperliquid to date from the highest levels of traditional finance.
Twelve days ago, a coordinated lobbying effort targeted them; now, the CEO has completely changed his tone.
The praise from Sprecher caused a stir because of the timeline.
On May 15, according to Bloomberg, CME and ICE executives warned CFTC and congressional officials that Hyperliquid’s decentralized perpetual contracts trading could pose risks of market manipulation and sanctions evasion, urging its inclusion under traditional financial regulatory frameworks. Following the report, HYPE dropped nearly 9%.
Just 12 days later, the head of ICE publicly expressed admiration at one of Wall Street’s most important investor conferences.
At the Bernstein conference, Speaker directly addressed this contradiction: “An article made it seem like we were frightened. We are not frightened. We are actually engaging with these people, understanding what they are doing. They are learning about our world, and we are learning about theirs. In that sense, it’s mutual admiration.”
But he immediately shifted the topic to the core regulatory concern: “What we’re saying to regulators is, why can’t we do the same thing? Why are you banning us after it’s already happened? Can’t we have a level playing field? This administration is strongly supportive of digitalization. If you think it’s legal, let us do it too; if you think it’s illegal, why haven’t they received the same harsh letters you sent us?”
This passage reveals ICE's true rationale for lobbying the CFTC: not to shut down Hyperliquid, but to seek regulatory relief that would allow traditional exchanges to participate in the on-chain derivatives market.
The night before SpaceX's IPO: Hyperliquid becomes the "shadow pricing venue"
The speaker’s interest in Hyperliquid is not general; he has a very specific observation: SpaceX is set to list on Nasdaq on June 12 with an estimated valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion, and derivatives contracts for SpaceX are already trading on Hyperliquid.
“I think what really took it to the next level is SpaceX—they’ve already launched trading of SpaceX derivatives. It will be fascinating to see what price the private market discovers when SpaceX officially prices on June 11, and whether that price influences the IPO itself,” said Sprecher. “Regulators and market participants will say it’s either completely irrelevant or highly relevant.”
He then calculated an extreme scenario: given that Hyperliquid allows up to 100:1 leverage, if retail traders flood into SpaceX derivatives, the on-chain notional exposure could potentially exceed the size of the IPO itself.
So I’m saying you can’t ignore it. I don’t yet know whether we should embrace it or hate it, but I think we’ll have the answer by June.
HYPE ETF has raised $100 million in its first 10 days, and PURR has been selected for the Russell 3000.
Sprecher's statement comes at a pivotal moment for Hyperliquid, as it undergoes intense mainstream adoption.
On May 12 and 15, 21Shares and Bitwise launched the first U.S. spot HYPE ETFs on Nasdaq and the NYSE, respectively, under the tickers THYP and BHYP. According to Bitcoin.com, within 10 trading days of their launch, the two funds attracted over $100 million in net inflows, capturing 1.04% of HYPE’s total market cap—exceeding the initial launch performance of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs on a market-cap-weighted basis. On May 27, Bitwise recorded a single-day net inflow of $19.05 million, becoming the world’s largest HYPE ETF.
On May 22, FTSE Russell announced the preliminary list for the June 2026 Russell US Index reconstitution, with Hyperliquid Strategies (Nasdaq ticker: PURR) appearing on the add-on list for the Russell 3000 Index, effective June 26.
PURR is currently the largest HYPE token treasury company, holding approximately 20 million HYPE tokens (valued at about $799 million as of April 29) and $103 million in cash, with no debt. Inclusion in the Russell 3000 means passive funds tracking this index will automatically purchase PURR, further strengthening the transmission channel between HYPE and traditional capital markets.
The HYPE token briefly surpassed $64 this week, setting a new all-time high and rising approximately 150% this year, significantly outperforming Bitcoin over the same period. According to CoinGecko data, HYPE’s current market capitalization is around $12.7 billion, ranking it tenth among crypto assets.
Jeff Yan traveled to Washington, and the Hyperliquid Policy Center stood firm in direct confrontation.
Faced with lobbying pressure from CME and ICE, Hyperliquid chose to respond directly.
On May 15, Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan revealed that he and the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) met with policymakers in Washington. HPC, an independent research and advocacy organization established in February 2026, is led by Jake Chervinsky, former policy director of the Blockchain Association and former chief legal officer at Variant, with initial funding of 1 million HYPE tokens provided by the Hyper Foundation.
Yan stated on X that the meeting discussed "how on-chain transactions, as a financial innovation, meet clear global user demand," and "the regulatory pathway for bringing on-chain derivatives markets to the United States."
In response to Bloomberg’s report on CME and ICE lobbying, Hyperliquid stated that its market offers “greater benefits and lower risk than traditional centralized exchanges,” and expects the CFTC to establish a dedicated regulatory framework for on-chain derivatives platforms.
An interesting detail: CME and ICE are currently undergoing parallel investigations by the CFTC and the Department of Justice over precisely timed oil futures trades on their respective platforms prior to federal policy announcements.
Author: Claude, Deep潮 TechFlow