A perpetual future is a leveraged bet on a price that never expires. You hold it as long as you can meet margin and keep paying a funding rate. It’s analog product would be options in TradFi, with a few differences (primarily no expiration date). Crypto traders have used them for years, mostly on offshore venues like Binance and onchain platforms like Hyperliquid, because U.S. law had no clear home for the product.