Perpetual Protocol is a decentralized open-source exchange for trading perpetual futures on xDai and Optimism. The platform aims to deliver the most accessible, secure, and leading decentralized derivatives trading experience for seasoned traders powered by DeFi principles.

Perpetual futures can be traded against the price of a wide variety of supported assets on the protocol. Traders can use them to go long or short, with up to 10x leverage and more.

Perpetual Protocol utilizes open-source vAMM technology to enable decentralization and offer complete transparency and control to its users. As it is deployed on Layer-2 scaling solutions, the protocol provides a faster trading experience with lower transaction costs than other DEXs and platforms operating on layer-1 Ethereum.

PERP is the utility token of Perpetual Protocol. It is used for governance and staking activities and has a fixed supply set of 150 million.

The critical components of Perpetual Protocol include:

Vault

This is the contract that stores all collateral within the protocol. All funds managed by Perpetual Protocol are commingled in the Vault contract, including all the margins used to open new positions.

Clearing House

This contract is responsible for managing all trading activities taking place on Perpetual Protocol. The Clearing House also handles all liquidations and leverage on the platform.

This contract mints virtual tokens when traders go long or short. It also stores a cost basis that calculates each traders actual profit or loss. Finally, it is responsible for swapping the tokens from the active tick to receive the opposite tokens.

Virtual AMM (vAMM)

In the Perpetual Protocol v1 implementation, the developers utilized the xyk model used by Uniswap V2. This was upgraded to the Uniswap V3 implementation in Perp v2.

Perpetual Protocol was initially founded as Strike by a team of startup founders and software engineers. The project shifted focus to perpetual futures during development and was rebranded to Perpetual Protocol in the summer of 2020.

The developers raised seed funding worth $1.8 million in August 2020 from several investors, including Multicoin Capital, Binance Labs, CMS Holdings, Three Arrows Capital, Alameda Research, and more. Other investors also received access to the PERP token via Perpetual Protocols first Liquidity Boostrapping Pool on Balancer.

Initially, the protocol was slated for launch on the Ethereum mainnet in September 2020. However, the DeFi wave of Summer 2020 caused a steep hike in gas prices on Ethereum, forcing the team of developers to switch to launching on xDAI (now Gnosis Chain) instead. Perpetual Protocols initial launch Perp v1 went live on xDAI in December 2020.

In November 2021, Perp v2 was launched on the Optimism network. This upgrade took Perpetual Protocol away from a pure vAMM model toward implementing an LP-driven derivatives AMM (dAMM) offering with better composability and performance.

PERP is a good token to include in your crypto portfolio, especially if you believe in the future potential of decentralized finance (DeFi). As one of the leading DeFi protocols offering perpetual futures trading in the market, the platform provides advanced features for experienced traders.

The PERP price could strengthen as more traders use its platform. This can be caused by a favorable outlook toward DeFi in general when Perpetual Protocol announces support for new assets or expands to new blockchain ecosystems.

The price of Perpetual Protocol crypto could also increase when the developers announce new upgrades that improve the overall efficiency and performance of the dApp. This could make it more attractive to use than other competitors, supporting the value of PERP token.

Although providing an accurate PERP token price prediction is impossible, you can monitor several vital fundamentals to understand price action and volatility in the Perpetual Protocol coin. These include:

On-chain Activity

A higher volume of trading activity on the Perpetual Protocol is one of the most significant factors boosting the PERP price statistics. The demand for PERP crypto rises among investors and traders when higher trading volume or more assets are listed on the platform.

Future Developments

Investor confidence in the token increases when Perpetual Protocol announces new upgrades that improve its efficiency and operations. Increasing the speed, introducing new features, expanding to new blockchain networks to unlock more liquidity, etc., are some examples that can support the price of PERP token in the market.

Market Sentiment

In particular, market sentiment toward cryptocurrencies and DeFi can also drive an uptrend in the Perpetual Protocol token price. A bullish or risk-on mood encourages buying activity in the market that can increase the PERP price. However, a bearish or risk-averse sentiment can cause sell-offs that weaken the value of PERP crypto.

$PERP is the utility token of Perpetual Protocol and is used in the following ways:

Governance

PERP holders enjoy voting rights on Perpetual Protocol. They can submit proposals, vote on other users proposals, and contribute to the decentralized governance mechanism to shape the projects future evolution.

Staking

Token holders can also lock PERP on the protocol to earn rewards in USDC from a percentage of the protocol fees generated by Perp. The rewards are distributed to PERP stakers every week.

Crypto Asset to Trade and HODL

Trade Perpetual Protocol against other cryptocurrencies to profit from changing market conditions and volatility. You can buy or sell PERP against other cryptos or hold it long-term if you believe in the future potential of Perpetual Protocol. Review the current price of Perpetual Protocol coin, PERP current market cap, current circulating supply, and 24-hour trading volume, and perform technical, sentiment, and fundamental analysis on the PERP price chart before trading the token.

Out of the total supply fixed at 150 million, the circulating supply of PERP tokens as of March 2023 is a little over 66 million. According to the Perpetual Protocol tokenomics, the token distribution of PERP is as follows:

1. 54.8% was allocated to the ecosystem and distribution of rewards.

2. 21% was given to the team and advisors behind the project.

3. 15% was distributed among the projects strategic investors.

4. 5% of PERP tokens were distributed on Balancers Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP) in September 2020.

5. 4.2% of the total supply was given to Perps seed investors.

Staking PERP on Perpetual Protocol allows you to enjoy unique benefits, including earning a percentage of protocol revenue in USDC and rebates via referrals. Heres how to stake PERP:

1. Visit the Lock PERP section of the Perpetual Protocol dApp and connect your wallet to the interface. Ensure your wallet is funded with sufficient tokens by buying PERP on BYDFi or other supported platforms and withdrawing your tokens to your wallet.

2. Click on the Lock PERP button on this page.

3. Enter the number of PERP tokens you wish to lock or stake and set the Lock Time between 1 and 52 weeks.

4. Approve and confirm the transaction using your wallet.

5. Sit back, earn rewards, and grow your crypto holdings by staking $PERP via Perpetual Protocol.