The first-ever perpetual decentralized exchange (Perp DEX), SparkDEX Eternal, has launched on Flare.

Flare users can use SparkDEX Eternal to integrate perpetual contracts – or “perps” – into their DeFi strategies, marking an exciting milestone within the Flare ecosystem. Powered by the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO), SparkDEX Eternal brings an essential DeFi tool to traders looking to increase market exposure to a wider range of assets and capitalize on price movements, all without needing to own the underlying assets.

Before delving further into Eternal, here’s some more context on perps.

What role do perpetual contracts play in DeFi?

Perpetual contracts are a type of financial derivative that allow traders to speculate and bet on the price of assets without the need to hold the underlying asset itself. Unlike regular futures contracts, perps do not have expiration dates.

The absence of expiration dates means that traders have the flexibility to hold their positions indefinitely, as long as they maintain the required margin. A funding rate mechanism ensures that the contract price remains aligned with the spot market price through regular payments made between long position and short position holders. Because of these features, perpetual contracts are powerful DeFi tools that offer traders opportunities for short selling, leverage trading, and hedging.

What can Flare users do on SparkDEX Eternal?

The user-friendly SparkDEX Eternal was designed to cater to both margin traders and liquidity providers alike. Users can incorporate perps into their DeFi strategies by opening leveraged positions on $FLR and other assets available on SparkDEX, which creates new advanced trading opportunities. By leveraging the FTSO, SparkDEX Eternal can ensure rapid updates, stability, and high performance.

Standout features of SparkDEX Eternal include:

• Up to 100x leverage
• Automated conditional orders (stop-losses, take-profits, trailing stops, protect order and reduce only)
• Wide selection of popular cryptocurrencies, with leading commodities and forex on the way
• Liquidity sourced from 12+ chains for optimal trade execution
• Unique pools supporting every asset on the platform
• Customizable management of open interest

The features listed above will be even simpler to take advantage of, thanks to an upcoming feature: the AI Companion. It will help users navigate the SparkDEX Eternal dApp. For instance, users will be able to prompt the AI Companion to execute a swap.

Additionally, SparkDEX participants are eligible for rFLR rewards through the Flare DeFi Emissions Program.

Empowering perpetual trading with FTSO

Flare’s enshrined oracle FTSO plays a crucial role in enhancing SparkDEX Eternal’s perpetual trading platform. Steve, Founder of SparkDEX, emphasizes the importance of FTSO for their platform:

“The FTSO’s rapid 1.8-second price feed updates ensure precise and reliable funding rate calculations and a trustworthy liquidation engine for SparkDEX Eternal. This unparalleled speed and accuracy make FTSO the ideal decentralized oracle solution for our platform, delivering a high-performance experience for margin traders.”

FTSO’s capability to support up to 1,000 price feeds will accommodate SparkDEX Eternal’s wide range of assets. This broad coverage is set to expand to include commodities and forex currencies, allowing traders to implement strategies like hedging across various assets beyond cryptocurrencies. By leveraging the FTSO, SparkDEX Eternal can offer a diverse trading environment for its users.

How will SparkDEX benefit Flare’s DeFi growth?

Through SparkDEX Eternal, Flare DeFi participants now have access to one of the most-traded financial derivatives in blockchain. The integration of perps into the Flare ecosystem can benefit Flare and its DeFi participants by:

• Boosting liquidity on Flare: In enabling leverage trading, SparkDEX Eternal attracts more capital and deeper liquidity pools. Deeper liquidity within the Flare ecosystem doesn’t solely benefit SparkDEX: it benefits other DeFi protocols within the Flare ecosystem.
• Encouraging broader DeFi participation: Perps can bring on a wider range of DeFi participants, advanced traders, and liquidity providers to Flare. SparkDEX has facilitated over $409 million in trading volume since its inception, and continues to onboard new participants to the Flare ecosystem.

The launch of SparkDEX Eternal’s perpetuals trading platform on Flare highlights the growing importance of accurate and decentralized data in the DeFi space. Dhruv Shah, DeFi Analyst of Flare, emphasizes the significance of this development:

“Perps are not only one of the most traded derivatives in the space; they’re also among the main drivers of oracle usage in the blockchain industry. The FTSO empowers the delivery of highly accurate and decentralized data needed for perps trading on SparkDEX Eternal. With SparkDEX Eternal and future perps DEXs, the demand for Flare’s data offerings will continue to grow and become more apparent.”

This platform launch provides the opportunity to position Flare as a leading solution for more sophisticated DeFi solutions, as more teams and individuals experience the benefits of a platform leveraging Flare’s powerful, enshrined oracles.

Explore SparkDEX Eternal today: https://sparkdex.ai/perps/trade