CEO Jeffrey Sprecher confirmed that ICE — the parent company of the NYSE — has repeatedly engaged with Hyperliquid, seeking a “level playing field” for a perpetual contract on the chain.
Jeffrey Sprecher, President and CEO of ICE , confirmed on Wednesday that the company has held numerous meetings with the Hyperliquid team to discuss cross-cutting business areas, amid the accelerating global growth of 24/7 on chain commodity Derivative trading.
This information clarifies the nature of the exchanges that Bloomberg previously reported, stating that ICE and CME Group lobbied the CFTC to take a tougher stance against Hyperliquid. Sprecher asserts that the discussions were essentially about exploring the possibility of ICE entering the on- chain perpetual contract market, not about containing a competitor.
From potential competitor to exploratory partner
Sprecher posed a direct question to regulators: if these operations were taking place, why was ICE banned from participating while Hyperliquid was not, and whether a level playing field was possible. He described the relationship with Hyperliquid as mutually respectful, “We help them understand our world. They help us understand their world,” and stressed that ICE was not panicking in the face of this surge.
Hyperliquid attracted ICE's attention partly due to the surge of traders outside the crypto sector using the platform to access the oil market on weekends and outside of traditional trading hours, especially in the context of the Middle East conflict which caused many important events to occur outside of regular exchange operating hours.
ICE is currently partnering with OKX to list perpetual contracts for Brent Crude and WTI Crude crude oil, announced last week. The company has also invested in OKX at a valuation of $25 billion, secured a seat on the board of directors, and injected an additional $600 million into Polymarket in March.
From a regulatory perspective, Sprecher points out the dilemma facing regulators: whether perpetual contracts on blockchain will be categorized as a new group or classified as swaps under the Dodd-Frank framework and equivalent regulations in the EU and Japan.
He also cited SpaceX's upcoming IPO, scheduled for June 11th with a potential valuation of up to $1.75 trillion, as a test case: whether the price discovered on pre-IPO perpetual markets like TradeXYZ will impact the official listing price, a question he believes will be interesting to watch.
