One of the main issues I see when people trade with/talk about perps is that they misunderstand what they're actually for. The main assumption is that they believe there's more risk when it's actually meant to be for the complete opposite

-leverage can act as an insurance policy against a protocol getting exploited
-leverage can limit the drain size of a single personal wallet if you get exploited
-leverage can reduce stress if an exchange suddenly halts withdrawals
-leverage forces the trader to identify where they are wrong
-leverage caps max risk if there's a significant impulse of volatility
-leverage limits downside against random coin exploits and rug pulls
Here's a few common misconceptions I see often
-spot trading/trenches/yield/defi is safer than leverage
-low leverage is safer than high leverage
-high leverage is degen and dangerous
-dca is safer than using leverage
This isn't the fault of users. They're just heavily misinformed mainly by marketing mechanics that outweigh trader safety and risk parameters
People think the opposite because they've never been taught how to use it responsibly. Whether that's by design, I'll let you make that judgement. Exchanges aren't incentivised to show people how, and that's if they even know how to use it themselves. More trading, more liquidations = more revenue
Point schemes, I keep seeing a lot of talk about this. One of the biggest issues from the last market cycle is the level of entitlement from people using platforms. It's considered the norm that there has to be some sort of incentive to use something. The platforms available are far too fragmented. You can't expect 50 different perp dexs to mirror an airdrop that happened on a single chain in a completely different environment
You have the added problem of the airdrop itself. If the final airdrop disappoints, traders leave and trade elsewhere. Even if it doesn't, a lot of traders will still leave if there's another point system on another platform. It effectively becomes a game of who can steal each others lunch rather than collectively trying to grow the perp ecosystem. Look what happened to NFT marketplaces when they followed a similar playbook
Big problem is that most products are designed to extract short term then fall flat in the long run and shut down. How many times have we seen teams raise millions, then make millions more in revenue, then the heavy heart speech and disappear? It's the same old playbook time and time again that attracts people like locusts when the biggest winners in the end are the platforms. Not the users
Farming is also one of the worst mechanics for traders as they are almost 99% of the time taking trades they have no business being in. They eventually blow up then leverage gets the blame for being a dangerous tool
I have blown up using leverage myself in the past. I was quick to blame it as well. Then I realised where I went wrong, adjusted, and haven't blown up since because I remember how awful it made me feel
Leverage has capped significant losses for me by using it the opposite way that most people do. A quick way to work out whether you are oversizing is by asking yourself. Could you match the notional size of this position if you were trading with spot? If the answer is no then you are sizing too big
If you want to add a layer of protection to yourself against the next 10/10 style event, rug pulls, personal wallet hacks/drains, and protocol exploits. Then learn how to use leverage defensively
As for the exchange side. Whilst I understand infrastructure is important. None of it means anything if a user arrives on your platform and doesn't know their arse from their elbow. That's where the instant friction is. If they try to use it anyway and immediately get rekt. You just wasted all of that effort by onboarding them in the first place
Growth is going to be a major problem when your foundation is essentially like a sieve