What is Perpetual Trading?
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Perpetuals, perpetual swaps, or perps are a special type of futures contract without an expiration date.
Futures trading allows users to enter positions on margin (leverage) using borrowed funds to optimize capital. Using leverage allows a user to enter a position with a larger size than their account balance. For example, a user could take 10× leverage and trade 100 CAKE for the price of 10 CAKE — in this case, the initial margin would be 10 CAKE, used to collateralize the leveraged position.
In addition to leverage, futures open the possibility of trading in both directions — buying (long) and selling (short). Perpetual contracts don't expire and allow the holder to trade the price action of an underlying asset without owning it.
PancakeSwap has offered perpetuals trading since V1. Our latest version — PCS Perps — is powered by Aster's orderbook infrastructure and represents a full rebuild of the experience: CEX-grade execution, up to 200× leverage, and a PCS-native frontend accessible directly from your wallet.
Previous versions (V1 and V2) are now legacy products.
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