The Perpetual Protocol, announced in 2019, is a trailblazer in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi), aiming to democratize access to advanced trading tools. Traditionally, leveraged derivatives trading was a realm dominated by centralized organizations and affluent individuals. The Perpetual Protocol seeks to dismantle this barrier, making these powerful instruments accessible to all. The Perpetual Protocol offers perpetual swaps, a type of futures contract which has no expiry date, thus allowing traders to hold positions indefinitely. The protocol's native token, PERP, plays a crucial role in the ecosystem, facilitating transactions and serving as a governance token. One of the defining features of the Perpetual Protocol is its use of a Virtual Automated Market Maker (vAMM). This innovative mechanism allows for the creation of a liquidity pool for each trading pair, ensuring efficient price discovery and reducing slippage. The vAMM also enables the protocol to offer up to 10x leverage to traders, a feature that sets it apart from many other DeFi platforms.