A decentralized exchange (DEX), Perpetual Protocol is focused on the market for futures on Ethereum and xDai. Which means a growing number of assets, including ETH, BTC, DOT and YFI, among others, can be traded on-chain, without the use of third parties in a custodial role.

Perpetual Protocol utilizes a virtual automated market maker (vAMM), which facilitates constant product curves, setting prices with greater predictability. "Like Uniswap, traders can trade with our vAMMs directly without the need for counterparties," the protocol says. "The vAMMs provide guaranteed on-chain liquidity."

PERP is the protocol's native asset.

The decentralized protocol trades perpetual contracts with an aim of “democratizing futures,” Messari said.

"Anyone can use Perpetual's contracts protocol to trade with low slippage and good liquidity," CryptoNewsZ said, adding that developers are also using the protocol's scaling blockchain technology, xDai, which facilitates faster, less expensive trades compared to other Ethereum-based exchanges.

The current price of PERP

As of early April 2022, PERP was trading at about $5 having lost 41% since the start of the year. PERP’s downward slide came at a time when global macro headwinds battered the overall crypto landscape.

Like many DeFi projects, PERP saw strong performance throughout the third quarter of 2021, culminating in the token reaching an all-time high of $24.40 at the end of August 2021, according to CoinGecko.

PERP hit an all-time low of $0.67 in November of 2020.

With a market capitalization of about $320 million, PERP sits just outside the ranks of the 200 largest digital assets by total market capitalization.

How the price of PERP is determined

PERP’s price is partially a function of the token’s deflationary nature. Only 150 million PERPs were created at launch; less than half of that total are currently in circulation. Remaining tokens will be distributed or released to qualified network participants, according to the project’s team (docs.perp.fi).

What the bulls are saying

• “By providing derivatives, leverage, and the ability to short, PERP delivers on its promise to bring new opportunities to the market,” said Securities.io.
• The price of PERP could possibly exceed $100 in four years, said CryptoNewsZ.
• PERP above $6 by the end of 2022 is a plausible scenario, PricePrediction said.

What the bears are saying

• "Perpetual Protocol has experienced latency issues and flash crashes during periods of very high volatility,” Bybit said.
• "According to our technical indicators," Coincodex said in early April, "the current sentiment is bearish."
• Although positive on PERP generally, CoinQuora has in the past warned about the chance that the “price might plummet.”