Hyperliquid is moving directly into the heart of U.S. policymaking with the launch of the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC), a dedicated think tank and advocacy hub based in Washington, D.C. The initiative is being financed by the Hyperliquid Foundation, which has committed 1 million HYPE tokens to the project – a war chest worth roughly $28.7 million at a token price of $28.75.
The new organization is explicitly focused on shaping how the United States regulates decentralized finance. Its core mandate is to push for clear, modern, and technically informed rules for DeFi protocols, with a special emphasis on one of the sector’s most controversial instruments: perpetual derivatives.
At the helm of the Hyperliquid Policy Center is Jake Chervinsky, a prominent figure in crypto policy circles. Before taking on this role, Chervinsky held senior positions at the Blockchain Association, a major digital asset trade group, and at venture capital firm Variant. As the inaugural CEO of HPC, he is expected to act as a bridge between protocol builders and policymakers, translating complex technical systems into language that lawmakers and regulators can meaningfully engage with.
Chervinsky argues that the United States has reached a turning point in its approach to decentralized finance. After years of friction, enforcement-first tactics, and regulatory ambiguity, there is now a growing recognition in Washington that DeFi will not simply disappear-and that the real question is how to integrate it into the existing financial system without stifling innovation or undermining consumer protections. The Hyperliquid Policy Center is being positioned as a specialized resource to guide that integration.
A central part of the center’s mission is educational. HPC intends to work closely with members of Congress and federal agencies to demystify how DeFi protocols operate: how liquidity pools function, how automated market makers and smart contracts execute trades, how risks are managed without traditional intermediaries, and how on-chain transparency can coexist with privacy and security. By supplying technical expertise directly to policymakers, the organization aims to influence rulemaking at the design stage rather than reacting after the fact.
Chervinsky stresses that much of the U.S. financial regulatory framework was built for an analog world: paper-based transactions, brick-and-mortar intermediaries, and centralized recordkeeping. These legacy rules are often a poor fit for permissionless protocols that run on code, live on distributed ledgers, and allow global, 24/7 access without traditional gatekeepers. One of HPC’s core arguments is that simply forcing DeFi into old categories-like treating every protocol as a traditional broker, exchange, or clearinghouse-will not work and could push innovation offshore.
Perpetual derivatives, commonly known as “perps,” sit at the center of this tension. These instruments resemble futures contracts but have no expiration date, allowing traders to maintain leveraged positions indefinitely by paying or receiving funding based on price differences. Perps dominate trading volumes on many offshore crypto exchanges and represent a significant share of global digital asset activity, yet they remain largely absent from regulated U.S. markets.
According to Chervinsky, perpetuals offer several advantages over conventional futures and options. Their structure is straightforward, with pricing that tracks underlying assets more cleanly than many traditional derivatives. For traders, this can mean more direct and transparent exposure to market moves. For regulators, however, the combination of leverage, 24/7 markets, and borderless access has raised concerns about systemic risk, investor protection, and market integrity-especially when platforms operate outside U.S. jurisdiction.
HPC intends to make the development of a coherent U.S. legal framework for perpetual derivatives one of its flagship projects. That means engaging both Congress and agencies like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission on questions such as: How should perps be classified under existing law? What kinds of disclosures and protections are appropriate in a fully on-chain environment? How can U.S. platforms compete with offshore exchanges without triggering regulatory crackdowns?
The scale of Hyperliquid’s funding commitment underlines how high the stakes are. Allocating the equivalent of nearly $30 million in HYPE tokens gives the center the resources to hire seasoned policy professionals, commission research, and maintain a sustained presence in ongoing debates in Washington. Unlike short-lived campaigns that surface only when legislation is imminent, HPC is being built as a permanent institution aimed at shaping long-term policy trajectories.
Alongside Chervinsky, the founding team includes Policy Counsel Brad Bourque, previously an associate at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and Policy Director Salah Ghazzal, who earlier served as Policy Lead at Variant. Both bring a mix of legal, regulatory, and venture experience, positioning the center to navigate complex statutory questions while understanding the commercial realities of DeFi builders and investors.
HPC is also expanding its leadership structure. The organization is actively recruiting for several senior roles, including a Chief of Staff, a Head of Communications, and a Head of Government Relations. This signals that the center is not just an advisory outfit but plans to run a full-scale policy, research, and public affairs operation capable of responding quickly to legislative proposals, regulatory guidance, and emerging narratives about crypto in the media and political spheres.
Beyond its core work on perpetuals and DeFi classification, the Hyperliquid Policy Center is expected to weigh in on broader structural issues that affect the sector. These include questions around decentralized governance, how to treat protocol tokens in securities and commodities law, the role of self-custody and non-custodial services, and the extent to which on-chain transparency can substitute for traditional reporting regimes. Each of these areas will shape whether DeFi can function openly in the U.S. or be driven further into regulatory gray zones.
The timing of the launch is notable. Policymakers are increasingly confronted with the reality that digital assets are not a niche experiment but a growing parallel financial infrastructure. Enforcement actions, piecemeal guidance, and state-level initiatives have created a patchwork that is difficult for both innovators and consumers to navigate. In such an environment, specialized policy centers with technical fluency have outsized influence: they can frame the questions, propose model approaches, and help avoid unintended consequences that arise when analog rules are simply stretched to fit digital systems.
For market participants, the creation of HPC signals that major DeFi ecosystems are no longer content to leave policy to chance. By dedicating significant resources to advocacy and education, Hyperliquid is effectively betting that regulatory clarity-particularly around derivatives like perps-will, over time, unlock deeper liquidity, more institutional participation, and a more stable environment for long-term growth. In contrast, persistent uncertainty tends to raise compliance costs, suppress innovation, and push sophisticated activity to less transparent venues abroad.
At the same time, the center will have to navigate inherent tensions. Many in DeFi value anonymity, permissionless access, and resistance to censorship, while regulators prioritize accountability, consumer protection, and the prevention of fraud, market manipulation, and financial crime. HPC’s challenge will be to convince policymakers that it is possible to design regimes that preserve the core advantages of decentralized protocols-such as programmability and open access-while still meeting public policy objectives.
Another key dimension is how U.S. rules will interact with global standards. Because DeFi operates across borders by default, domestic regulation that is too restrictive or out of sync with other major markets can simply displace activity rather than shape it. A significant part of HPC’s work is likely to involve explaining these cross-border dynamics to officials who are used to dealing with geographically bounded financial institutions and infrastructures.
For builders and investors watching Hyperliquid and the broader DeFi landscape, the launch of the Hyperliquid Policy Center underscores a broader trend: policy has become a strategic battleground, not a side issue. Protocol success is no longer determined only by code quality, liquidity, and user experience. It is also increasingly tied to whether the legal environment recognizes and accommodates new architectures like perpetual DEXs, lending protocols, and on-chain governance.
In that context, Hyperliquid’s decision to endow a dedicated, well-funded policy institution in Washington reflects both defensive and offensive motives. Defensively, it aims to prevent blunt, ill-fitting rules from crippling the ecosystem. Offensively, it seeks to shape a regulatory model in which DeFi-and specifically instruments like perpetuals-can be treated as legitimate, regulated components of the financial system rather than as permanent outliers.
As U.S. agencies and legislators continue to debate the future of crypto, the Hyperliquid Policy Center is positioning itself to be a central voice in discussions over how DeFi is defined, supervised, and ultimately integrated into the broader economy. The outcome of those debates will help determine not only the trajectory of Hyperliquid and its HYPE token, but also whether the United States plays a leading or trailing role in the next phase of global financial infrastructure.