Intercontinental Exchange has invested in TradeXYZ, which develops onchain markets, to build a new regulated market and clearing structure on the Hyperliquid blockchain after funding OKX, a blockchain technology and trading company, in March this year.

On 29 October 2026 ICE said in a statement that it will become the exclusive operator of TradeXYZ regulated markets, alongside making a strategic investment in the company.

TradeXYZ offers eligible users outside the United States 24/7 access to perpetual futures referencing equities, equity indices, commodities, and currencies. Perpetual futures are contracts without an expiration date that track the spot rate of the underlying asset through a floating funding rate. In just over a year, TradeXYZ’s markets on Hyperliquid have surpassed $650bn in volume, according to the firm.

Jeff Sprecher, chair and chief executive officer of ICE, described TradeXYZ on the third quarter results call on 29 October 2026 as the leading deployer of real-world asset perpetual markets on the Hyperliquid blockchain.

TradeXYZ said in a statement: “TradeXYZ was built on a vision of bringing the world’s most important markets onchain, available 24/7. ICE brings the regulatory, technological and market expertise to help us realize that ambition in America.”

Sprecher continued that Hyperliquid manages the underlying technology for TradeXYZ, much like Pillar for the New York Stock Exchange, while Trade XYZ designs the products that customers want to trade. NYSE Pillar is the integrated, low-latency trading technology platform developed by ICE for all New York Stock Exchange equities and options markets.

“Together with TradeXYZ, and subject to regulatory approvals, we intend to bring these markets into a U.S. regulated framework by combining TradeXYZ’s retail market expertise with ICE’s exchange, clearing, and regulatory capabilities,” said Sprecher.

Hyperliquid said on X: “In this structure:

+ Hyperliquid serves as the underlying technology infrastructure via HIP-3*

+ tradeXYZ designs and implements the markets

+ ICE operates the regulated market and clearing structure”

Jeff Yan, co-founder and chief executive of Hyperliquid, said on X: “From pits to computers to now onchain markets, America has always led the way in innovating markets to improve price discovery and capital formation. Today the next chapter begins with ICE, trade[XYZ], and Hyperliquid.”

Growing up in the United States, NYSE was synonymous with the story of American capitalism. I vividly remember learning about the Buttonwood agreement in 9th grade history class. 24 stockbrokers met under a tree on Wall Street and formed the beginning of what would become the… https://t.co/UCD7ceUP3U

— jeff.hl (@chameleon_jeff) October 29, 2026

“When I first spoke to Jeff Sprecher around a year ago, he asked what success looks like to me,” added Yan. “I thought for some time and joked that it would be seeing ICE building on Hyperliquid’s technology. I could never have predicted the progress that we’ve made as a community in a single year to make this come true. Excited to see what we can build together next.”

Once approved, verified customers are expected to access Hyperliquid-based markets through futures commission merchants (FCMs), who will perform know-your-customer and anti-money laundering screening.

Sprecher stressed that the retail-oriented, blockchain-based TradeXYZ business will operate separately from its institutional futures and clearing franchise, so commercial hedgers can continue to rely on ICE’s traditional futures markets, forward pricing curves, and established trading and clearing infrastructure.

“The retail perpetual futures opportunity will deploy blockchain technology and serve a customer base with unique trading and settlement demands,” Sprecher added.

He argued that perpetual futures facilitate short-term exposure, citing data that the average holding period for a perpetual oil futures contract in September was 12 hours, which is shorter than a traditional financial settlement cycle.

“We see these perpetual markets as additive to our futures markets, not a replacement for them,” said Sprecher.

TradeXYZ’s regulated perpetual contracts are expected to be offered through ICE’s joint venture with OKX, which has 120 million retail clients globally, subject to the joint venture’s own pending regulatory approvals as a U.S.-registered broker-dealer and FCM. Planned contracts span equities, indices, commodities, FX, and crypto, with access through participating brokers and platforms, according to TradeXYZ, subject to approval.

With OKX and TradeXYZ, Sprecher said ICE now has relationships with two pre-eminent blockchain ecosystems. Sprecher said: “We think these two are most capable of bringing a DeFi ecosystem into a regulated environment where you have know-your-customer and protection against money laundering.”

Sprecher argued that OKX’s centralized and decentralized finance (DeFi) blockchain platforms, and Hyperliquid with its HIP3 blockchain framework which allows builders like TradeXYZ to deploy markets, are complementary businesses.

“OKX provides distribution and access to ICE’s existing platforms using its KYC and AML compliant wallet technology,” Sprecher added. “Trade XYZ brings expertise in retail perpetual markets on the Hyperliquid blockchain, and ICE provides the regulated risk management oversight that ties them together.”

Shaunda Devens, analyst at Blockworks, said on X that the partnership is the strongest validation yet of Hyperliquid’s thesis as it it validates Hyperliquid’s infrastructure for traditional exchanges and unlocks significant distribution.

Devens said: “The world’s second-largest exchange operator has chosen to build on Hyperliquid rather than offer 24/7 perpetuals through traditional infrastructure, as CME attempted.”

https://t.co/AmTmb8H3mW

— shaunda devens (@shaundadevens) October 29, 2026

“If approved, the partnership could unlock distribution across ICE’s broad network of FCMs, enabling them to offer these products directly to retail clients,” added Devens. “Given the massive volume difference between NYSE and TradeXYZ, where the latter is around 1/78th of NYSE volume, even adoption from a handful of FCMs would be enough to dramatically increase TradeXYZ perpetual volumes.”

Petro Dmytrilev, a DeFi) analyst, said:

ICE owns the NYSE, and now it owns part of @tradexyz

The NYSE's owner is bringing @tradexyz to the US. Americans still won't trade the xyz books that did $650B in a year. They get a separate market built next to them on @HyperliquidX.

ICE[XYZ] still needs CFTC approval, and… https://t.co/kuISnNDuQg pic.twitter.com/fYNKQnBl98

— Petro D. | Research (@PDmytriiev) October 29, 2026

Famed hedge fund manager Stan Druckenmiller, said:

I am excited to be an investor in trade(xyz) as they partner with ICE to bring 24/7 perpetual futures on Hyperliquid to the United States. As a market participant, I am looking forward to to using their innovative product to enhance my investment process.

— Stan Druckenmiller (@standuquesne) October 29, 2026

In addition, in October this year ICE announced it had invested $2bn in prediction market Polymarket. Sprecher said ICE is bringing crowdsourced probability assessments into institutional workflows, turning prediction market data into a new source of signals that complement traditional pricing and reference data sources.

Sprecher highlighted that ICE is also working with stablecoin issuer Circle and tokenization platform Securitize. He said: “These are all entrepreneurs pushing the envelope on technology, and we want to be at the table with them and incorporate some of the good work that they are doing in our business where appropriate.”

Tokenized securities venue (TSV)

The ICE-OKX joint venture includes a new tokenized securities venue (TSV) which operates using OKX’s wallet and its X Layer blockchain.

TSVs are allowed to trade tokenized NMS stock, with certain limitations including market share thresholds, under an innovation exemption issued by the U.S., Securities and Exchange Commission in September this year. If NMS stock is tokenized by a third party unaffiliated with the issuer, the TSV must provide a written notice to the issuer allowing them to object and a number of issuers have not given permission.

“Some issuers have chosen not to participate initially, but we believe our engagement and transparency will help build the trust needed for tokenized markets to digitize within this newly regulated environment,” said Sprecher.

Traditional finance markets

Sprecher said ICE is also continuing to evolve its traditional markets. ICE has launched extended trading hours on its options markets, and 23×5 equities trading on NYSE is due to begin in December this year.

New products that help customers manage event-driven risks include ICE’s binary return derivatives, known as ByRDs, and binary options tied to key performance indicators or KPIs, both of which have received regulatory approvals.

ICE has also introduced economic indicator futures tied to both central bank rate decisions and U.S. natural gas storage reports, which Sprecher said gives customers exchange-traded, centrally cleared instruments to express views on specific market-moving economic events.

To support enhanced risk management and greater trading activity outside of traditional banking hours, ICE is partnering with its key global settlement banks to allow commercial bank deposits to be moved to meet margin calls during weekends and holidays.

Financials

Warren Gardiner, chief financial officer of ICE, said on the call: “This was the best third quarter in our history, and the second best quarter we have ever reported, behind only the first quarter of this year.”

Operating income for the third quarter was $1.4bn, 20% higher than a year ago. Third quarter net revenues were $2.8n, a 15% year-on-year increase. This comprised exchange net revenues of $1.5bn, fixed income and data services revenues of $674m and mortgage technology revenues of $549m.

Exchanges’ net revenue increased 22% from a year ago and is nearly 40% above the level of three years ago, according to Gardiner. Transaction revenues rose 28% and he said every major asset class contributed to this increase.

Cash equities and equity options net revenue grew 25% to 132m, which was a third quarter record. Gardiner said: “Importantly, total open interest ended the quarter up 13% year-over-year, giving us a strong foundation as we enter the fourth quarter and look to 2027.”

Ben Jackson, president of ICE and chair of ICE Mortgage Technology, said on the call that North American financial gas markets delivered a record third quarter with volume up 15% year-on-year. Jackson added that artificial intelligence is also creating demand for compute and ICE sees an opportunity to bring transparent pricing and risk management tools to this new market, subject to regulatory approval.

ICE has partnered with Ornn to list financial futures contracts based on the Ornn Compute Price Index (OCPI), which tracks live-traded spot prices for GPU computing power, and with NATIVX to launch energy-normalized GPU compute futures contracts based on NATIVX’s COIL Index.

“Subject to regulatory review, they will give customers a single platform and clearing relationship to manage both the energy required to produce intelligence and the compute required to deliver it,” said Jackson.

Interest rate volume increased 49% in the third quarter, accelerating in September, with total rate volume up 95%. On 10 September 2026 ICE set records for futures open interests in both financials  and interest rates as central banks move on different paths globally.

Gardiner added that during the third quarter ICE completed the financing for the acquisition of fixed income trading platform MarketAxess, that it announced in July this year. The financing is fully in place as ICE issued $3.75bn of senior notes, has a $2bn term loan and has commercial paper capacity.

“Importantly, last week we received approval from the Department of Justice, and we now expect the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2027, ahead of the first half timeline we outlined in July,” added Gardiner.

Chris Edmonds, president, fixed income & data services, at ICE said on the call that the feedback on the acquisition has been “very positive.” Edmonds added: “Folks are looking to do more with fewer vendors and are focused on scale of distribution and content, including data and new products.”

MarketAxess shareholders have also voted to approve the acquisition.

Gardiner said: “As we look to the balance of the year and into 2027, we expect to continue returning capital to stockholders alongside our deleveraging plan following the close of MarketAxess, extending our track record of growth and value creation.”