On May 27, Jeff Sprecher, founder and CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), offered a rare, personally charged evaluation of Hyperliquid during an interview at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Conference.

"This Hyperliquid we're discussing— if you haven't heard of it yet, it's bigger than Nasdaq, okay? Just 11 people. When you see this, you'd say, wow, that's truly impressive," said Sprecher. He added immediately: "I love this. I wish I were younger so I could get in there myself. By the way, billionaires are being created in droves among those building this."

ICE is the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange and operates one of the world’s largest energy futures markets. Sprecher’s remarks represent the most direct public endorsement of Hyperliquid to date from the highest echelons of traditional finance.

12 Days After Joint Lobbying “Crackdown,” CEO’s Tone Shifts Dramatically

Sprecher’s praise has sent shockwaves precisely because of timing.

On May 15, Bloomberg reported that executives from CME and ICE had warned officials at the CFTC and Capitol Hill that Hyperliquid’s decentralized perpetual contracts may pose risks of market manipulation and sanctions evasion, urging their inclusion under traditional financial regulatory frameworks. Following the leak, HYPE’s price dropped nearly 9%.

Just 12 days later, ICE’s leader publicly expressed admiration at one of Wall Street’s most important investor conferences.

In his presentation at the Bernstein event, Sprecher directly addressed the contradiction: "A headline made it seem like we were scared. We weren’t scared. In fact, we’re having conversations with these people, learning what they’re doing. They’re learning about our world, and we’re learning about theirs. In that sense, it’s mutual admiration."

But he quickly pivoted to the core regulatory demand: "What we’re telling regulators is: Can we do this too? Why prohibit us when this is already happening? Can we have a level playing field? This administration is very supportive of digitization. If you believe this is legal, let us do it too; if you don’t, then why haven’t they received the same harsh letters we’ve gotten?"

This statement reveals ICE’s true lobbying logic: not to shut down Hyperliquid, but to secure regulatory flexibility allowing traditional exchanges to enter the on-chain derivatives market.

On the Eve of SpaceX’s IPO: Hyperliquid Emerges as a “Shadow Pricing Venue”

Sprecher’s interest in Hyperliquid is far from generic—he has a very specific lens: SpaceX is set to debut on Nasdaq on June 12 with an estimated valuation of $1.75 trillion, and derivative contracts on SpaceX are already trading on Hyperliquid.

"I think what really elevates it is SpaceX. They’ve already launched trading in SpaceX derivatives. It will be fascinating on June 11 when SpaceX is officially priced—let’s see what the private market discovers, and whether that price influences the IPO itself," said Sprecher. "Regulators and market participants will either dismiss it as irrelevant or recognize it as highly consequential."

He then calculated an extreme scenario: given Hyperliquid allows up to 100:1 leverage, if retail traders flood into SpaceX derivatives, the on-chain notional exposure could "potentially exceed the IPO’s size itself."

"So I say you can’t ignore it. I don’t know yet whether we should embrace it or dislike it—but by June, we’ll all have answers."

HYPE ETF Launches in 10 Days, Raises $10M; PURR Added to Russell 3000

Sprecher’s comments came at a pivotal moment for Hyperliquid’s mainstream integration.

On May 12 and May 15, 21Shares and Bitwise launched the first U.S.-listed HYPE spot ETFs (ticker THYP and BHYP) on Nasdaq and NYSE respectively. According to bitcoin.com, both funds collectively attracted over $10 million in net inflows within their first 10 trading days, absorbing 1.04% of HYPE’s total market cap—a proportion surpassing Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs’ initial performance on a market-cap-weighted basis. Bitwise recorded $19.05 million in net inflows on May 27 alone, becoming the world’s largest HYPE ETF.

On May 22, FTSE Russell released preliminary results for the 2026 June Russell U.S. Index reconstitution, listing Hyperliquid Strategies (NASDAQ: PURR) on the Russell 3000 add list, effective June 26.

PURR is currently the largest HYPE token treasury entity, holding approximately 20 million HYPE tokens (valued at ~$799 million as of April 29) plus $103 million in cash, with zero debt. Inclusion in the Russell 3000 means passive index-tracking funds will automatically buy PURR, further cementing the pipeline for HYPE’s integration into traditional capital markets.

HYPE surged past $64 this week, hitting a new all-time high, with year-to-date gains of ~150%, far outpacing Bitcoin’s performance. According to CoinGecko, HYPE’s current market cap stands at ~$12.7 billion, ranking it tenth among crypto assets.

Jeff Yan Heads to Washington; Hyperliquid Policy Center Fights Back Head-On

Faced with lobbying pressure from CME and ICE, Hyperliquid chose a direct response.

On May 15, Hyperliquid co-founder Jeff Yan revealed that he and the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) had held meetings with policymakers in Washington. HPC, established in February 2026, is an independent research and advocacy organization led by Jake Chervinsky, former policy lead at Blockchain Association and former chief legal officer at Variant, funded initially with 1 million HYPE tokens allocated by the Hyper Foundation.

Yan stated on X that discussions focused on "how on-chain trading represents a clear global user demand as a financial innovation" and "the regulatory pathway to bring on-chain derivatives markets into the U.S."

In response to Bloomberg’s report on CME and ICE’s lobbying efforts, HPC emphasized that Hyperliquid provides markets "more beneficial and lower-risk than traditional centralized exchanges" and anticipates the CFTC establishing a dedicated regulatory framework for on-chain derivatives platforms.

An intriguing detail: CME and ICE themselves are currently under parallel investigations by the CFTC and the Department of Justice over "timing-precise" crude oil futures trades occurring just before federal policy announcements on their respective platforms.

Author: Claude, DeepFlow TechFlow