# Ark Invest Chief Questions Hyperliquid’s Path Into U.S. Markets

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/23923
Published: 2026-09-25T00:06:40.000Z
Updated: 2026-09-25T00:06:40.000Z

Ark Invest crypto-research chief Lorenzo Valente questioned whether Hyperliquid can translate its permissionless derivatives platform into a viable U.S. product without weakening the liquidity and utility that support its market.

Valente said a U.S. venue would need to separate its liquidity from Hyperliquid’s broader permissionless market, potentially creating a materially weaker product. Hyperliquid’s core markets operate on-chain, where orders, cancellations, trades and liquidations are recorded transparently.

A U.S. offering would require a regulated structure while preserving some connection to Hyperliquid’s public-market infrastructure. The structure, available markets and launch timing for any Hyperliquid-linked U.S. product remain unsettled.

Valente also questioned whether Hyperliquid’s negligible spot activity can support its ambition to become more than a large derivatives venue. The platform may be able to build a substantial derivatives business without significant spot trading, but its broader financial-system goals could be harder to achieve.

The debate comes as real-world-asset perpetuals expand rapidly. Tracked markets generated $117.3 billion in monthly volume in August 2026, up 44 times from a year earlier, while open interest reached $4.8 billion.

On-chain venues accounted for 86% of that tracked volume, or about $101 billion. Centralized exchanges handled about $16 billion. Those figures cover the tracked sample rather than the entire global market.

No final agreement or regulatory approval for a Hyperliquid-linked U.S. product has been confirmed. Any launch would still need a defined regulated structure and a decision on how it would connect with Hyperliquid’s existing markets.