Vega Protocol Introduces Perpetual Futures

Trading-focused blockchain Vega Protocol has launched the first perpetual futures market on its network.

In an X post published on Monday, the company said that perpetual futures would allow its users to “trade with leverage, unmatched capital efficiency and great UX on an ever-growing list of community-proposed markets.”

Perpetual futures will join the existing offerings Vega has provided since its mainnet launch in March earlier this year, such as cash-settled futures markets.

Vega aims to distinguish its perpetual offering by empowering the community to utilize on-chain governance, allowing for the introduction of permissionless markets. Community members will now be able to propose and vote on specific assets which they want perpetual futures to be created for, as well as use Ethereum smart contracts as price oracles.

Additionally, governance led by the project’s community will have the flexibility to endorse any ERC-20 token for settlements through its governance mechanism, deviating from the conventional practice of restricting settlements to USDC or equivalent stablecoins.

“This release is a huge step forward for Vega and next generation DeFi,” said Barney Mannerings, co-founder of Vega Protocol, in an interview with The Block. “It brings perpetual futures, the most popular crypto-settled derivatives product — and one of the community’s most requested features — to Vega’s open and permissionless network.”

With this move, Vega is entering a competitive landscape that includes DeFi giants such as dYdX and GMX, as well as centralized platforms like ByBit and OKX. However, the company won’t be taking a backseat.

According to data provided by Vega Protocol to The Block, the company has seen over $850 million in trading volume from its futures market alone since its alpha mainnet launch in March.

The project previously unveiled its whitepaper in 2018, outlining a performance-optimized blockchain utilizing a Tendermint proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Vega was specifically crafted to meet the rigorous demands of cryptocurrency derivatives trading, emphasizing low latency and high scalability. It boasts a decentralized limit order book integrated into its blockchain infrastructure.

Vega Protocol’s security is reinforced by validators who engage in staking the Vega token. According to CoinMarketCap, this token is currently trading at $1.22 with a market capitalization of $71.4 million.