Hyperliquid Urges CFTC to Exempt DeFi From Legacy Rules in July 9 Filing

Hyperliquid News

The Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC), together with non-custodial wallet provider Phantom, has formally asked the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to stop treating decentralized finance like traditional financial intermediaries. The joint comment, filed ahead of the agency's July 9 deadline, argues that on-chain protocol software and self-custody wallets are tools, not brokers, and that the derivatives rulebook was never written for them. The filing responds to a Request for Information the CFTC issued on June 18, which invited the industry to identify rules that obstruct financial technology. HPC frames the submission as squarely within the commission's existing authority to act.

The comment lays out three concrete requests. First, it asks the CFTC to confirm that publishing on-chain protocol code does not, by itself, require registration as an exchange or clearinghouse. Second, it seeks a clear pathway for registered exchanges and clearinghouses to run regulated functions on on-chain systems, letting US derivatives rules modernize without abandoning oversight. Third, it urges the commission to formalize, through rulemaking, the no-action relief granted to Phantom in March, extending the same legal certainty to other self-custody wallet providers. The filing compares blockchain developers to engineers who build trading systems yet are not regulated as intermediaries themselves.

Self-custody sits at the center of the argument. HPC and Phantom contend that non-custodial wallets never hold customer assets or execute trades on a user's behalf, so they should not carry intermediary obligations like any other wallet interface. That distinction, the filing states, mirrors how software that powers automated market makers operates without a middleman. By preserving user control of assets, the organizations argue, on-chain infrastructure can improve transparency, accelerate settlement, and reduce counterparty risk relative to intermediated venues where a third party holds funds and stands between traders.

The push carries a clear policy stake: keeping builders onshore. HPC and Phantom warn that tailored regulation would encourage developers to build in the United States rather than relocate overseas because of legal uncertainty. If adopted, they say, the proposals could open the door to broader institutional adoption of blockchain infrastructure while preserving oversight wherever genuine financial intermediaries remain involved. The filing positions on-chain markets not as a loophole but as a settlement layer that regulators can supervise more directly, with transparent order flow that legacy plumbing cannot match, benefiting the wider altcoin and derivatives market.

The timing reflects a more accommodating posture at the commission. Michael Selig took over as CFTC chair in December and has since steered US crypto policy toward clearer rules, including approval of domestically listed perpetual futures contracts. That backdrop matters for Hyperliquid, whose core product is a perpetuals venue, because a formal on-chain framework could determine how much derivatives activity migrates into the regulated domestic market rather than staying offshore. The organizations describe their answer as one the commission has the standing authority to decide on without new legislation.

What happens next is procedural but consequential. The CFTC will review industry feedback gathered through the Request for Information before deciding whether to issue guidance or launch a formal rulemaking. Neither outcome is guaranteed, and the agency has set no timeline for a decision. Still, the scope of the eventual response could shape how much on-chain trading, self-custody, and settlement activity moves onshore. For now, the filing is a confirmed comment on the record; any resulting rule change remains unconfirmed and dependent on how the commission weighs the submissions it received.

Our reading of COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine puts HYPE at $67.24 as of press time, pinned directly beneath a formidable ceiling: the $67.76 resistance scores 96/100, driven by the confluence of the Ichimoku Cloud Top, Kijun line, and pivot point. Immediate support at $66.94 rates 74/100 on the EMA 20 and Fibo 0.236, with deeper backing at $61.94. Derivatives read cautious — funding is mildly negative at -0.0116% and open interest sits near $1.70 billion, while a Fear & Greed reading of 22 signals extreme fear. A clean break above $67.76 favors bulls; losing $66.94 and the $61.94 shelf would invalidate the uptrend and open a bear-market retest.