ICE says more than 99% of its market participation is institutional today. The retail perps get their own clearing structure, which ICE says keeps its hedgers clear of retail counterparty risk.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) climbed more than 15% on Thursday after New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) agreed to bring Trade[XYZ]’s Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures to the US.
The token traded near $79 early on Thursday, according to CoinGecko. By mid-afternoon UTC, it traded near $93, up more than 16% in a day. That left HYPE about 5% below its record of $98, set on September 23.
Trade[XYZ] runs its markets through HIP-3, a Hyperliquid feature that lets developers deploy their own perpetual futures markets. Hyperliquid’s documentation requires each deployer to stake 500,000 HYPE. Trade[XYZ] said its Hyperliquid markets have passed $650 billion in volume in just over a year.
ICE Builds a Separate Retail Venue
Under the agreement, ICE becomes the exclusive operator of Trade[XYZ]’s regulated markets. It plans to build a new retail market and clearing structure on Hyperliquid for that purpose. Trade[XYZ] said the plan needs approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It calls the planned venue ICE[XYZ].
Planned contracts cover equities, indices, commodities, currencies and crypto. A perpetual contract never expires, so it gives traders short-term exposure without a fixed settlement date. Likewise, customers would reach those contracts through futures commission merchants that join the platform, after identity and anti-money-laundering checks. Evidently, those customers are new to Trade[XYZ], which today serves only eligible users outside the US.
The retail business will run apart from ICE’s institutional futures and clearing franchise. ICE said more than 99% of its participation today is institutional, and its commercial hedgers will bear no exposure to the counterparty risk of retail traders on the new platform.
“We see these perp markets as additive to our futures markets, not a replacement for them,” said Jeffrey Sprecher, Chair and CEO of ICE.
ICE Takes a Stake in Trade[XYZ]
ICE took a stake in OKX in March, and the two companies run a joint venture called OKXICE. That venture filed with the SEC on October 4 to trade tokenized shares of 63 NYSE-listed companies. ICE expects Trade[XYZ]’s contracts to reach customers through the same venture, once it wins its own approvals as a broker-dealer and futures commission merchant.
Thursday’s deal adds a minority stake in Trade[XYZ] itself. ICE said the stake will not have a material impact on its 2026 adjusted financial results. Notably, investor Stan Druckenmiller is joining as a backer.
Trade[XYZ] will keep running its HIP-3 markets alongside the planned US venue. For the US venue, Trade[XYZ] said it will share products, eligibility, and timing as approvals progress.
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