Hyperliquid in the EU: MiCA, ESMA, Germany and France
No EU member state is named in Hyperliquid's Terms of Use (last updated June 15, 2026), so EU residents are not Restricted Persons. Hyperliquid is not authorised under MiCA or by any national regulator, so EU investor protections do not apply.
ESMA (February 24, 2026): perpetual futures are likely to fall under national CFD rules, including leverage limits and a ban on benefits for firms (quote).
France: the AMF blacklist has no Hyperliquid entry, but lists Aster's site since February 27, 2026 (details).
Germany: MiCA licensing has applied since December 30, 2024 (BaFin); Hyperliquid holds none (details).
Terms re-read and ESMA, AMF and BaFin sources read October 20, 2026.
Who this is for: adults resident in an EU member state who are not US persons and not citizens of a sanctioned territory, and who have checked their national rules on leveraged derivatives. Hyperliquid is not authorised under MiCA or by any EU regulator.
Trading on Hyperliquid needs an account, and the referral code has to be in place before you trade: open the join link in the browser you will trade in, then make your first deposit and Enable Trading there. A code can no longer be added once an account has more than $10,000 of trading volume.
HOLYGRAIL is our referral code: we earn a share of the fees of accounts that join with it. It is not an offer, and checking the rules where you live comes first.
By Cipher Intelligence Editorial Team · Published · 4 min read · ESMA35-243228190-8024, the AMF blacklist, BaFin's MiCAR article and four venues' Terms checked October 20, 2026 · How we verify
1. Hyperliquid's Terms and the EU
The EU does not appear in Hyperliquid's Restricted Persons clause. §1.6 names the United States and Ontario and adds territories under sanctions or export controls; for EU residents that last category matters only for citizens of sanctioned territories, who are restricted wherever they live (§1.6(c)). Everyone else in the 27 member states is outside the contract's exclusions.
The Terms then hand the real question back to you: §1.3 says Hyperliquid is not licensed or registered by any regulator, and §1.9 asks you to make sure leveraged derivatives are permitted where you live. In the EU those rules are partly European (MiCA, MiFID II) and partly national (the CFD measures each authority adopted).
2. Hyperliquid, Lighter, Aster and edgeX in the EU
EU member states under each venue's own Terms
Where you are
HyperliquidTerms of Use, June 15, 2026
LighterTerms of Service, December 29, 2025
AsterTerms and Conditions, February 25, 2026
edgeXTerms of Use, March 24, 2026
EU member states
Not named
Not named
Not named
Not named
Clauses: Hyperliquid §1.6, Lighter's Prohibited Person (b) clause under “Access and Restrictions”, Aster §2.1(c), edgeX §1.5; all four Terms re-read on October 20, 2026. “Not named” only means the place is not on that venue's list. It is not a licence and says nothing about local law. Aster's prediction markets close Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Belgium, and the AMF blacklists Aster's site in France (section 6).
On their perpetuals, none of the four venues excludes an EU country. None appears as an authorised crypto-asset service provider on ESMA's register either: none of the four is an authorised MiCA crypto-asset service provider, and none is on ESMA’s non-compliant list (register page dated October 7, 2026).
3. What ESMA said about perpetual futures
“These financial instruments are likely to fall within the scope of the existing national product intervention measures on CFDs adopted by national competent authorities. Where these derivatives meet the definition of a CFD, they are subject to the applicable product intervention requirements, including leverage limits, a mandatory risk warning, a margin close-out and negative balance protection, and the prohibition of monetary and non-monetary benefits.”
ESMA, “ESMA reminds firms of their obligations under CFD product intervention measures amid rising offerings of perpetual futures”, February 24, 2026; public statement ESMA35-243228190-8024. esma.europa.eu (read October 20, 2026).
The statement goes further than most summaries. It says the commercial name “perpetual futures” is irrelevant to the legal analysis, and that a funding-rate mechanism, trading on a venue or a voluntary insurance fund do not take a product out of the CFD measures. On marketing it is blunt:
“mass marketing campaigns, initiatives aimed at inexperienced investors, or emails and pop-ups to all clients of a firm that state that such products are now offered and investors should “get started now” should not be considered to be consistent with a narrow target market”
These obligations fall on investment firms authorised in the EU and on national authorities. Hyperliquid is neither. For an EU trader the practical point is the reverse: the leverage limits, negative balance protection and risk warnings that ESMA describes are what you would get from an EU-authorised firm, and what you do not get on Hyperliquid. That is also why this page does not use a fee discount as a reason to sign up.
4. MiCA authorisation
The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation requires crypto-asset service providers that serve EU clients to be authorised in a member state. Transitional periods let providers already active under national regimes continue for a while; in France, the AMF reminded providers that theirs ended on July 1, 2026. Hyperliquid never had a national registration to carry over, and it has no MiCA authorisation.
5. Germany (BaFin)
BaFin wrote in January 2025 that the MiCA requirements for the authorisation and supervision of crypto-asset service providers have applied since December 30, 2024. Hyperliquid holds neither a BaFin licence nor a MiCA authorisation from another member state. A Google site search of bafin.de for “Hyperliquid” on October 20, 2026 returned no BaFin page; we did not search BaFin's own databases, so treat that as “no warning found”, not as clearance. Germany's national CFD measures are among those ESMA's statement refers to.
6. France (AMF)
The AMF keeps public blacklists of sites not authorised to offer financial products in France, including a category for crypto-asset derivatives. Our search on October 20, 2026:
Hyperliquid (and hyperfoundation): no result.
Lighter, edgeX: no result.
Aster: www.asterdex.com, “Produits dérivés sur crypto-actifs”, online since February 27, 2026.
AMF, “Listes noires et mises en garde”. amf-france.org (searched October 20, 2026). The AMF says its lists cannot be exhaustive.
For a French reader, “not on the blacklist” is the weakest possible good news: it means the AMF has not singled Hyperliquid out, not that it is authorised. MiCA's transitional period in France has also ended, so no grandfathering applies.
7. What the app does for EU connections
Not tested from an EU country. The app runs a legalCheck on each connection; we know its modes from the app's code, not from an EU connection. §3.1.5 of the Terms prohibits hiding your location with a VPN or proxy.
Who this is for: adults resident in an EU member state who are not US persons and not citizens of a sanctioned territory, and who have checked their national rules on leveraged derivatives. Hyperliquid is not authorised under MiCA or by any EU regulator.
Decided to use it? Open the account before your first deposit
Trading on Hyperliquid needs an account, and the referral code has to be in place before you trade: open the join link in the browser you will trade in, then make your first deposit and Enable Trading there. A code can no longer be added once an account has more than $10,000 of trading volume.
HOLYGRAIL is our referral code: we earn a share of the fees of accounts that join with it. It is not an offer, and checking the rules where you live comes first.
No. ESMA's interim MiCA register lists no authorisation for Hyperliquid, Lighter, Aster or edgeX, and Hyperliquid's own Terms (§1.3) say it is not licensed or registered by any regulator anywhere. The MiCA transitional period for providers already active in France ended on July 1, 2026, per the AMF.
Ist Hyperliquid in Deutschland legal?
We do not give a legal verdict. Germany is not named in Hyperliquid's Terms (last updated June 15, 2026); Hyperliquid has no BaFin licence and no MiCA authorisation, and the MiCA rules on crypto-asset service providers have applied in Germany since December 30, 2024, according to BaFin. A site search of bafin.de found no BaFin page naming Hyperliquid on October 20, 2026; that is not proof that none exists.
Est-ce que Hyperliquid est interdit en France ?
Hyperliquid's Terms do not name France, and when we searched the AMF blacklist on October 20, 2026 it had no entry for Hyperliquid. The same search showed www.asterdex.com on the AMF list of unauthorised crypto-derivative sites since February 27, 2026. Hyperliquid is not MiCA-authorised, so French investor protections do not apply.
Is Aster blocked in France?
The AMF put www.asterdex.com on its blacklist of unauthorised sites offering crypto-asset derivatives on February 27, 2026. The blacklist is a public warning that the site is not authorised to offer those products in France; we do not link Aster on this page.
Does ESMA's February 2026 statement ban perpetual futures for EU traders?
No. The statement of February 24, 2026 (ESMA35-243228190-8024) is addressed to investment firms and national authorities. It says perpetual futures are likely to fall under the national CFD rules, which bring leverage limits, a risk warning, margin close-out, negative balance protection and a ban on monetary and non-monetary benefits. Those rules bind firms offering the products, not traders.
Why does this page not mention the referral discount?
Because ESMA reminds firms that CFD rules prohibit monetary and non-monetary benefits, and warns that "get started now" style mass marketing to inexperienced investors is not consistent with a narrow target market. We are not an investment firm, but we apply the same restraint on EU pages.
Which perp DEXs exclude EU countries?
For perpetuals, none of the four venues we cover names an EU member state in its Terms. Aster's prediction markets do close Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Belgium, and France's AMF has blacklisted Aster's site.
Who this is for: adults resident in an EU member state who are not US persons and not citizens of a sanctioned territory, and who have checked their national rules on leveraged derivatives. Hyperliquid is not authorised under MiCA or by any EU regulator.
Trading on Hyperliquid needs an account, and the referral code has to be in place before you trade: open the join link in the browser you will trade in, then make your first deposit and Enable Trading there. A code can no longer be added once an account has more than $10,000 of trading volume.
HOLYGRAIL is our referral code: we earn a share of the fees of accounts that join with it. It is not an offer, and checking the rules where you live comes first.
Disclosure: HOLYGRAIL is our Hyperliquid referral code; we earn a share of the fees of accounts that join with it, and it never raises yours. We link no other venue on this page. Hyperliquid's Terms (last updated June 15, 2026) and the Lighter, Aster and edgeX Terms were re-read October 20, 2026; ESMA's statement ESMA35-243228190-8024, the AMF news item and blacklist, and BaFin's MiCAR article were read or searched the same day; ESMA's MiCA register was checked October 15, 2026. This is not legal or tax advice.