In May, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange went to Washington with a complaint.

It was about crypto. 

A crypto exchange called Hyperliquid was trading oil around the clock. No trading floor. Weekends included. The company asked regulators to take a hard look.

Their warning: an unregulated, round-the-clock market where traders don’t have to say who they are could skew global oil prices, invite manipulation, and help people dodge sanctions.

This week, that same owner stopped complaining and signed up.

Let’s talk about what just happened, why it happened, and what it means for crypto-at-large. 

The Big Bet

The company is Intercontinental Exchange. ICE. 

It owns the NYSE and some of the biggest futures markets on Earth.

Today, ICE signed a deal to bring 24/7 perpetual futures to America, built on Hyperliquid’s technology, pending approval. It’s also taking a stake in Trade[XYZ], the company that designs markets on Hyperliquid.

Then legendary investor Stan Druckenmiller said he’d invested in Trade[XYZ] too. He plans to use the product “to enhance my investment process.”

Scrutinize it. Study it. Build on it.

That’s how Wall Street comes to the public blockchains. BlackRock spent three years on private bank blockchains that went nowhere. ICE is taking a different approach: it’s moving into where the action is.

Why Hyperliquid?

A perpetual future, or “perp,” is a bet on an asset’s price that never expires, so traders can hold it as long as they like. Perps have taken over crypto trading, making up as much as 90% of derivatives volume on major crypto exchanges.

Hyperliquid is the biggest blockchain-based perpetuals exchange in the world. It holds more than half of all blockchain perps open interest. It also sends nearly all of its trading fees into buying back its token, HYPE.

Companies that launch markets on Hyperliquid must lock up 500,000 HYPE for at least six months. Every new builder takes HYPE off the market. 

And it now has two planned roads, regulations pending, into America: Kraken’s licensed exchange and ICE’s.

One Easy Way to Play it

Buying HYPE directly requires a crypto account

But earlier this month, on our Monday Moonshots call, James pointed to a simpler way in: Hyperliquid Strategies (Nasdaq: PURR).

PURR is a public company that holds HYPE. About 29.3 million tokens as of August, all staked and earning. No debt. Its CEO calls it a “fortress balance sheet.”

For anyone who wants Hyperliquid exposure in a brokerage account, it’s the cleanest door. PURR also has listed options and joined the Russell 3000.

3 Things We’re Watching

Three things decide how big this gets.

The approval. ICE’s market still needs a green light from the CFTC. Timing is the open question.

The money trail. ICE runs the US market and holds the license. It hasn’t said how much of that American trading revenue flows back to HYPE holders. If the answer is “a lot,” the bull case for the HYPE token gets much bigger. That’s the number we’re watching.

The price you pay. PURR’s share price can drift above or below the value of the HYPE it holds. Check the premium before you buy. Expect volatility. Size accordingly.

Big picture, this is much larger than one crypto exchange. 

For 15 years, Wall Street treated crypto as the casino next door. Now it’s building an American market on a public blockchain’s technology. 

Five months ago, ICE wanted crypto reined in. Now it wants a piece. Watch who follows.