A well-funded policy player just landed in Washington to champion decentralized finance. Hyperliquid on Wednesday unveiled the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC), a research and advocacy outfit aiming to be a go-to resource for U.S. lawmakers on DeFi and derivatives — especially perpetual futures. The launch comes with a sizable war chest: the Hyper Foundation donated 1,000,000 HYPE tokens to seed the center, a stake worth roughly $29 million on Wednesday after HYPE climbed about 22% over the past month, CoinGecko data shows. Jake Chervinsky — who will serve as HPC’s CEO — framed the initiative as a choice point for the U.S.: either adopt rules that let blockchain-based finance flourish or “wait and watch as other nations seize the opportunity.” Chervinsky brings deep policy chops to the role. He previously served as chief legal officer at Variant, a VC that has backed DeFi names like Uniswap and Morpho, and worked at the Blockchain Association in Washington, D.C. Hyperliquid’s leadership says the center fills a gap. Co-founder and CEO Jeff Yan noted that the project’s decentralized development model “meant that Hyperliquid lacked a unified voice in important policy discussions until now.” Yan and others signaled the timing is critical: a market-structure bill with potential implications for crypto remains stalled in the Senate, and major regulatory proposals are on the table. HPC positions itself differently from established crypto trade groups such as the Blockchain Association, Coin Center, or the Chamber of Digital Commerce. Its stated mandate is narrower and tactical: advance “decentralized market infrastructure,” with a particular focus on perpetual futures — the derivatives where Hyperliquid has built a dominant market share. A quick primer: perpetual futures, or perps, are derivatives without an expiration date. Traders can hold positions indefinitely and periodic funding payments between longs and shorts keep perp prices tethered to an asset’s spot value. Perps have become a core product in many DeFi markets and a lucrative niche for Hyperliquid, which began three years ago as a DEX known for leveraged trading, including meme coins. But Hyperliquid’s reach has broadened. In recent months the exchange has dipped into real-world assets such as gold and silver. Regulators have begun to take note: under former acting CFTC chair Caroline Pham, the agency approved Bitnomial to offer customers access to spot crypto trading alongside perps and options. The policy fight is already playing out publicly. Last October, Chervinsky pushed back on a Senate Democratic proposal that would have required DeFi front ends — the websites people use to access protocols — to register with regulators and perform KYC. He warned the plan amounted to “an unprecedented, unconstitutional government takeover of an entire industry,” and predicted many U.S. DeFi developers would move offshore if such rules were enacted. There are signs of regulatory opening, however. Michael Selig, who succeeded Pham as acting CFTC chair, told Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast that if markets demand perpetual futures for traditional assets — “perps for oil,” as an example the hosts floated — the agency would consider them. “It’s been too long that this stuff is only developed offshore, and we really want to bring it back with clear rules of the road,” Selig said. HPC’s launch signals that at least one major DeFi project is shifting from product-building to political engagement, bringing a well-funded, expert-led voice to Capitol Hill as lawmakers and regulators wrestle with how to fold decentralized markets into U.S. financial rules. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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