Jake Chervinsky says Hyperliquid is infrastructure, not an exchange

Jake Chervinsky wants to clear something up: Hyperliquid does not run an exchange. Speaking around TOKEN2049 in Singapore, the CEO of the Hyperliquid Policy Center described the protocol as neutral public infrastructure that anyone can build trading products on top of.

That distinction sounds like semantics. In crypto regulation, semantics often decide who needs a license and who doesn’t.

One level below the storefront

In an interview on October 7, Chervinsky said Hyperliquid’s protocol operates beneath the customer-facing platforms that traders actually use. He placed it “one level below” exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken.

He also said the network is “not meant to compete” with those businesses.

Under that framing, regulated entities, including traditional exchanges, can build their own products on Hyperliquid’s technology. The exchange handles customers, onboarding and compliance. The protocol handles the plumbing.

Chervinsky reached for familiar comparisons to make the point. He likened Hyperliquid’s infrastructure to Bitcoin and Ethereum, arguing that, like those networks, it does not need to register as an exchange.

A ten-year deadline for the old guard

Chervinsky did not stop at definitions. He offered a forecast with a clear condition attached.

If the model succeeds, he predicted, every significant exchange, crypto-native or traditional, would need to adopt public blockchain infrastructure within a decade to stay competitive. His case rests on three advantages: transparency, resilience and cost-effectiveness.

He also indicated that onchain markets are expected to operate under US regulatory frameworks soon.

On October 8, Chervinsky spoke at TOKEN2049 about Hyperliquid’s role as infrastructure for all of finance. He shared the conversation with figures from HyperliquidX and ICE, the Intercontinental Exchange.

Who is the Hyperliquid Policy Center

The Hyperliquid Policy Center launched in February 2026 as a nonprofit. Its focus is advocacy and research on onchain markets and perpetual derivatives.

Perpetual derivatives, or perps, are futures contracts with no expiry date. Traders can hold a leveraged position on an asset’s price for as long as they keep funding it, which has made perps one of the most heavily traded products in crypto.

The center was funded with a donation of 1 million HYPE tokens from the Hyperliquid Foundation. That donation was valued at approximately $28-29 million.

Kraken’s parent is already testing the thesis

In September 2026, Payward, the parent company of Kraken, announced plans to offer permissioned perpetual futures on Hyperliquid to eligible US customers.

The setup pairs public blockchain technology with compliance layers on top. Kraken’s side handles who gets access and how the rules are applied. Hyperliquid’s side handles the market itself.

What this means

For Hyperliquid, the infrastructure framing is a regulatory strategy as much as a technical description. If the protocol is treated like Bitcoin or Ethereum rather than like an exchange, it avoids exchange registration requirements, while the businesses building on it shoulder the compliance burden.

That division of labor is what makes the Payward plan possible. Regulated firms get access to an onchain order book without the protocol itself having to become a regulated firm.

What to watch next is whether more exchanges follow Payward’s lead, and how US regulators respond when they do.