Perpetual futures ("perps") let traders take leveraged long or short exposure to an asset without ever taking delivery of it and without the contract expiring, unlike traditional futures. To keep the perpetual's price tracking the underlying spot price, exchanges use a funding rate: a periodic payment between long and short position-holders, paid by whichever side is pushing the perp's price away from spot.
Perps allow strategies unavailable to spot-only trading: shorting an asset without borrowing it, or running market-neutral trades like funding-rate carry (holding spot long and perp short simultaneously to collect the funding payment while staying roughly market-direction-neutral).
zengtrade is currently a spot-only platform. Perpetuals (and the funding-rate-carry strategy type that depends on them) are a real roadmap item, not yet built: they need a derivatives venue integration the current engine doesn't have.
Educational content, not investment advice. zengtrade is paper-first and non-custodial.