Perpetual Protocol (PERP) open interest surges as price defies gravity

Perpetual Protocol has emerged as the best-performing cryptocurrency this week. PERP, its token, surged to a high of $1.2296, the highest level since February this year. In all, the token has jumped by more than 210% from the lowest level this month.

It is not clear why Perpetual Protocol’s token has surged this week. The most recent news was the launch of dappOS, a platform that has integrated Perpetual Protocol’s features. This integration makes it possible for people to trade perpetual futures seamlessly from any chain.

The rally is also because of the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), as we saw recently with a stock like VinFast. In most periods, a cryptocurrency that is rising tends to attract more buyers who want to participate in the action.

Meanwhile, data compiled by CoinGlass shows that PERP futures open interest has surged to the highest level in more than a year. It jumped to a high of $168.75 million on Friday, higher than Friday’s $147 million. Most of this open interest is in Binance followed by Bybit and OKX. A higher open interest in the futures market is usually a sign that a coin has more demand. 

Another metric that explains the surge of PERP price is liquidations. Data shows that shorts liquidations have surged in the past few days. They peaked at over $1.9 million on Thursday and then narrowed to $579k on Friday. Shorts liquidations happen when a broker is forced to close an existing leveraged trade.

Perpetual Protocol is one of the biggest DeFi projects in Optimism, a leading layer-2 network. It is a trustless crypto trading platform where people can arbitrage, trade, and stake cryptocurrencies.