Native tokens of decentralized exchanges Uniswap and Hyperliquid have noticeably increased over the day amid changes in the regulation of tokenized assets in the U.S. HYPE rose by approximately 13% and on September 18 reached a new all-time high of around $91, after which its price corrected to $89. UNI added about 30% and for the first time since November 2025 rose above $9, but then decreased to approximately $8.7. The movement in quotes coincided with the decision of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to grant certain on-chain platforms a conditional five-year exemption from standard exchange registration requirements when trading tokenized securities.
The new regime applies to specialized platforms for tokenized securities. They will be able to operate without registration as an exchange under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, provided they meet established conditions. Simultaneously, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has extended temporary relief for developers of trading software. This concerns "passive" trading software, which can exist as a standalone product or be integrated into third-party applications, including cryptocurrency wallets. The rules cover, in particular, event contracts, perpetual futures, and other regulated derivatives. The changes create additional conditions for the development of on-chain infrastructure working with traditional financial instruments.
Tokenized assets already occupy a significant place in the trading activity of decentralized platforms. On Hyperliquid, among the most demanded categories of the futures market outside cryptocurrencies are digital stocks, commodities, stock indices, and the foreign exchange market. On Uniswap, the share of traditional tokenized instruments is lower, but in terms of overall liquidity, this segment surpasses some other areas, including meme tokens and staking. Thus, the new U.S. rules affect infrastructure that is already used to work with digital representations of traditional assets. However, the short-term change in the value of UNI and HYPE alone does not allow us to determine what portion of the movement was caused by regulatory news.
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