ICE CEO Jeff Sprecher recently confirmed that the company is in discussions with the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid. Following the news, the platform’s token HYPE continued its upward momentum, reaching an intraday high of $63.25, close to its all-time high of $64.44 set earlier this week.
Over the past two weeks, HYPE has risen approximately 38%, with a 9.2% increase in the last 24 hours. The report notes that the token has gained over 80% in the past year, performing among the top large-cap crypto derivatives assets.
ICE executives publicly mentioned the platform
Speaker discussed Hyperliquid at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on May 27, stating that the platform's volume has "exceeded Nasdaq" and mentioned that ICE is in communication with it to better understand this market.
This statement indicates that traditional exchange operators are taking on-chain derivatives platforms more seriously. Hyperliquid has experienced rapid growth over the past year, primarily driven by active trading of perpetual contracts, attracting users seeking leveraged trading on-chain.
Trading volume and locked assets continue to rise.
According to DefiLlama data, Hyperliquid's current total value locked is approximately $5.524 billion, with daily trading volume exceeding $1 billion. As market interest in decentralized trading infrastructure grows, HYPE's fully diluted valuation has risen to nearly $60 billion.
- The total value locked is approximately $5.524 billion.
- The platform's daily trading volume has exceeded $1 billion.
- HYPE reached $63.25 at one point this week.
The report also noted that both ICE and CME Group have recently increased their focus on the decentralized derivatives market and are reportedly engaging in more discussions with regulators on related regulatory issues.
Commodity perpetual contracts are gaining attention.
One area of market focus is on-chain perpetual contracts linked to commodities. Discussions center on commodity-linked perpetual contracts, anonymous trading activity, and whether offshore decentralized markets could impact traditional benchmark price formation.
Among these, Hyperliquid’s crude oil-related perpetual contracts have drawn additional attention. Traditional exchange operators are concerned that if liquidity in decentralized commodity contracts continues to grow, it may gradually impact the price discovery mechanism, which has been primarily dominated by regulated futures exchanges.
However, based on statements from ICE executives, the company does not view decentralized platforms merely as competitors, but is also evaluating how such on-chain trading infrastructure can integrate with broader financial markets, particularly amid the ongoing expansion of tokenized assets and blockchain settlement.
CME synchronously launches new products
While traditional exchanges are accelerating their monitoring of on-chain markets, CME Group also announced this week its plan to collaborate with Silo Data to launch futures products tied to GPU computing power pricing.
CME CEO Terry Duffy has referred to hashing power as "the oil of the 21st century." This statement reflects how traditional derivatives exchanges are turning their attention to broader new digital infrastructure assets, with decentralized trading platforms having become an indispensable part of this landscape.