Perpetual futures (“perps”) make up ~70% of Bitcoin trading. Why are they so popular?

Saw this in a PodBrief summary of a Prof G Markets episode and thought it was worth putting in front of this community for discussion.

Source – PodBrief briefing from Prof G Markets – https://podbrief.info/briefing/6899881-e3bc3a62-d2c2-11ef-bdd5-b774ab1c5d81/

For anyone who isn’t familiar, perpetual futures (or “perps”) are basically futures contracts with no expiration date. They’re structured with a funding rate mechanism that keeps prices aligned with spot, which allows traders to hold positions indefinitely. Traders are drawn to them because of the leverage and liquidity they provide, and they’ve become so dominant that they now make up the majority of Bitcoin trading volume. I’ve read that leverage can go as high as 50X or more, which seems like a huge amount of risk for even small moves in price.

I’ve never actually used perps myself, so I’m genuinely curious to hear from those of you who do. How do you use them in practice? Are they a regular part of your strategy for hedging, speculation, or yield farming? Do institutions use them for managing large exposures, or is the volume primarily retail-driven with people trying to swing for the fences? What risks or benefits do you see in having so much of the crypto market tied to these instruments?