Hyperliquid Launches ₱1.68 billion ($29 million) Policy Center for DeFi Lobbying

Hyperliquid just launched a Washington policy shop with ₱1.68 billion ($29 million) in backing from its Hyper Foundation. The Hyperliquid Policy Center announced Wednesday that it hired Jake Chervinsky as CEO to lobby for decentralized finance in the United States. Hyper Foundation contributed 1,000,000 HYPE tokens to fund the center's initial operations.

Chervinsky said the organization's debut comes at a critical time with a stalled market structure bill in the Senate. He previously served as Chief Legal Officer at crypto VC firm Variant and Chief Policy Officer at the Blockchain Association. The policy center will focus narrowly on decentralized market infrastructure, especially perpetual futures—a departure from existing crypto lobbies like Coin Center and the Chamber of Digital Commerce, which advocate for the entire industry.

Hyperliquid co-founder and CEO Jeff Yan said on X that the exchange's decentralized nature meant it lacked a unified voice in policy discussions until now. Chervinsky has already clashed with Senate Democrats over DeFi regulation, pushing back in October against a proposal requiring DeFi front ends to register with regulators and perform KYC checks, calling it an unconstitutional government takeover.

Recent regulatory signals suggest Washington might be warming to perpetual futures. CFTC Chair successor Michael Selig told Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast that if there's demand for these products, the agency will consider them. Former Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham approved Bitnomial under her tenure, allowing customers to access spot crypto trading alongside perps and options. HYPE tokens have climbed 22% over the past month.