ICE CEO Jeff Sprecher Calls Hyperliquid ‘Bigger Than Nasdaq’

Intercontinental Exchange founder and CEO Jeff Sprecher mentioned crypto-native change Hyperliquid has turn out to be unattainable for conventional market operators to disregard, pointing to its weekend oil buying and selling, stablecoin settlement, high leverage and retail-driven worth discovery as indicators of a broader shift in international markets.

Speaking in a Bernstein presentation excerpt dated May 27, 2026, Sprecher mentioned ICE, the dad or mum firm of the New York Stock Exchange, has been watching Hyperliquid intently because the decentralized platform strikes into markets traditionally dominated by conventional venues. He mentioned he had met with the Hyperliquid crew a number of occasions to debate what the platform is constructing, what ICE is doing, and the place the 2 could have overlapping pursuits.

Hyperliquid Gets Major Wall Street Nod

“First of all, we all know them nicely, and I’ve met with them quite a lot of occasions personally and to speak about what they’re doing, what we’re doing, the place there could also be some widespread overlap that we will work on,” Sprecher mentioned. “They have gotten consideration as a result of they’ve been trading oil on the weekends when our conventional oil markets are closed. And it simply so occurs on this time of battle within the Middle East, there was lots of exercise that occurs, lots of selections and issues occur on the weekend.”

That weekend exercise, he mentioned, has made Hyperliquid related not solely as a crypto venue however as a supply of off-hours worth discovery for markets that also function on extra restricted conventional schedules. ICE’s response, based on Sprecher, is not going to be to maintain oil markets open by the complete weekend after pushback from main oil firms. Instead, he mentioned ICE plans to increase buying and selling very late on Friday and reopen very early on Monday, successfully narrowing the window wherein conventional oil markets are closed.

Sprecher framed the difficulty as a “wake-up name” for the business. Many institutional vitality purchasers, he mentioned, will not be buying and selling on blockchain-based overseas venues and will not be permitted to take action beneath inside controls. Still, they’re watching the exercise and the costs shaped there.

“They’re all watching it, and so they’re watching the value discovery,” Sprecher mentioned. “And whether or not they admit it or not, it’s being a part of the zeitgeist of when our markets do open, actually early on Monday.”

The ICE chief additionally centered on Hyperliquid’s broader market construction. He described the platform as “a real DeFi change” that settles on blockchain rails, makes use of stablecoins and has attracted market makers and early adopters who would in any other case be lively in conventional markets. He additionally highlighted the dangers hooked up to its leverage mannequin.

“It is on a blockchain. It is settled with stablecoins, algorithmically settled. It has very high margining. You can have as much as 100:1 leverage, which is a part of the attract.”

Sprecher mentioned the platform’s itemizing of a by-product tied to SpaceX might turn out to be a check case for whether or not private-market worth discovery on a DeFi venue issues to the broader monetary system. He mentioned market contributors and regulators would quickly be capable to decide whether or not the value shaped on Hyperliquid was “irrelevant” or “extremely related” as soon as the corporate goes public, based on the excerpt.

The most hanging a part of Sprecher’s remarks got here close to the tip of the change, when he overtly praised Hyperliquid’s builders and in contrast the platform’s scale to Nasdaq, although the excerpt didn’t specify the metric behind that comparability.

“I really like that. I want I used to be youthful and doing it,” Sprecher mentioned. “By the way in which, the variety of billionaires which might be being created doing this. This Hyperliquid that we’re speaking — should you haven’t heard about it, it’s larger than Nasdaq, okay? It’s 11 individuals.”

That stress is already seen in Washington. Before Sprecher’s Bernstein remarks surfaced, ICE and CME pressed US officials to scrutinize Hyperliquid’s position in offshore, oil-linked buying and selling, arguing that nameless 24/7 markets might have an effect on worth discovery in commodities and create dangers round manipulation or sanctions evasion.

Hyperliquid has pushed again on that framing, arguing that steady onchain markets cut back somewhat than improve market danger. The break up leaves Sprecher’s feedback with a sharper edge: ICE could admire what Hyperliquid has constructed, however the platform’s rise can also be forcing legacy exchanges to determine whether or not to compete with crypto-native market construction, foyer in opposition to it, or attempt to take up elements of it into regulated venues.

At press time, HYPE traded at $61.526.