The Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) has filed its first regulatory submission outside the United States, responding to the European Commission's consultation on reviewing the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA). The filing argues that existing EU rules, together with guidelines already published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), are sufficient to govern perpetual contracts without further legislation.
MiCA became fully applicable on December 30, 2024, but it excludes derivative products from its scope. Perpetual contracts, the open-ended futures-like instruments that dominate trading volume on platforms such as Hyperliquid, instead fall under the separate MiFID II directive governing financial instrument markets.
HPC's submission points to ESMA guidelines from December 2024 that set out criteria for when a crypto-asset qualifies as a financial instrument. The filing cites paragraph 47 of those guidelines specifically, which classifies perpetual contracts as derivatives, to support its position that no new regulatory category is needed.
ESMA takes a different view
ESMA submitted its own response to the same consultation on September 30. Rather than treating the current framework as adequate, the authority is seeking expanded powers to act against third-country platforms that solicit EU residents without authorization. It has also proposed introducing an authorized service category for gateways that provide access to DeFi protocols.
The split in supervisory emphasis arrives as the European Commission has separately proposed, in late 2025, giving ESMA direct supervision of the largest crypto platforms. Oversight is currently divided among 27 national regulators.
Leverage and jurisdiction
The question of leverage sits at the centre of the disagreement. ESMA has capped leverage on crypto contracts for difference at 2:1 since 2018, alongside rules requiring negative balance protection and automatic liquidation once losses reach 50% of margin. Hyperliquid, by contrast, offers leverage of up to 40x on bitcoin and up to 25x on ether.
EU law bars third-country platforms from actively soliciting EU residents, though reverse solicitation, where a client initiates contact themselves, remains permitted. Hyperliquid's interface already blocks access from several jurisdictions. The platform accounts for more than one third of decentralized perpetuals trading volume globally, giving its regulatory posture in Brussels added weight for EU-based traders who use it.
Both submissions, along with other contributions to the consultation, will feed into a review report that the European Commission has promised to deliver to the European Parliament.
