How to Use Avantis: Perps Trading on Base Tutorial (2026)
— By Tony Rabbit in Tutorials
Learn how to use Avantis, the decentralized perpetuals DEX on Base. Trade crypto, forex, and commodities with USDC, understand zero-fee perps, and stake AVNT.
Avantis turns Base into a single trading desk for crypto, forex, and commodities, all settled on-chain with USDC. If you want leverage on BTC and ETH, on currency pairs like USD/JPY, or on real-world assets like gold and oil without leaving a decentralized venue, Avantis is built for exactly that. This guide explains what Avantis is, how to fund and place your first trade, how its zero-fee model and rebates actually work, and how the AVNT token fits in. It also covers the risks, because high leverage cuts both ways.
Quick answer
- Avantis is a decentralized perpetual futures DEX on Base where you trade crypto, forex, and commodities as synthetic perps using USDC as collateral.
- To start, bridge USDC to Base, connect a wallet, pick an asset, choose long or short, set your leverage, and confirm the transaction.
- It uses "zero-fee" perps: no fee to open or close, and instead a small share of profit only on winning trades, plus loss rebates and positive slippage.
- AVNT is the native token (1B fixed supply) used for staking in the Security Module, fee discounts, XP boosts, and governance.
What Avantis Is Best Used For
Avantis is a decentralized perpetual futures exchange that launched on Base mainnet in February 2024. Base is an Ethereum Layer 2, which means transactions are fast and cheap compared with Ethereum mainnet, while still settling to Ethereum for security. Everything on Avantis is on-chain: your positions, the liquidations, and the fees are all recorded transparently and can be inspected by anyone.
The project describes itself as a "universal leverage layer." In practice that means you are not limited to crypto. You can trade BTC, ETH, and other tokens, but also forex pairs such as USD/JPY and commodities or real-world assets like gold and oil. These trade as synthetic perpetuals that mirror real-world prices through oracles, so you are getting price exposure rather than owning the underlying asset.
Leverage can be high. Crypto markets can go up to roughly 500x, and forex and commodity markets also support high leverage. That flexibility is the appeal, but it is also why discipline matters: at high leverage, a small move against you can wipe out your collateral.
What you can trade
On the liquidity side, traders take the other side of the trade against a USDC vault. Liquidity is unified as avUSDC, and the protocol uses risk-tranche LP vaults split into junior and senior tranches so that liquidity providers can choose their risk and reward profile. As of 2026, Avantis is reported to be the largest derivatives DEX on Base, having processed well over $18B in volume, 2M+ trades, and serving 38,500+ traders. Treat those figures as reported metrics rather than guarantees.
Prepare: Wallet, USDC, and Base
Before you trade, you need three things: a self-custody wallet, USDC as collateral, and that USDC sitting on the Base network. Avantis is non-custodial, so you keep control of your funds and approve every action from your own wallet.
Your pre-trade checklist
If you are buying or verifying any token before you start, confirm the contract address and chain on a market data site like DEXTools first. Matching the contract and network to Base avoids sending funds to the wrong asset or a copycat token.
How to Open Your First Trade
The app shows a trading interface where you select a market, set direction and leverage, and confirm. UIs change over time, so treat the labels below as typical rather than exact. The core flow stays the same.
Open a position step by step
- Connect your wallet to the Avantis app and confirm it is on the Base network.
- Deposit or approve USDC as your collateral. The first time, you will sign a token approval transaction.
- Choose the asset you want to trade, for example BTC, ETH, USD/JPY, or gold.
- Pick a direction: long if you expect the price to rise, short if you expect it to fall.
- Set your position size and leverage. The app typically shows your liquidation price as you adjust it, so watch that number.
- Optionally set a take-profit and stop-loss to manage the trade automatically.
- Review the details, then confirm. Your wallet will ask you to sign the transaction.
- Once on-chain, the position appears in your open positions, where you can monitor PnL and close it at any time.
Start small. Open a low-leverage position with a size you are comfortable losing, watch how the liquidation price behaves, and only scale up once you understand how the mechanics feel on a live trade.
Zero-Fee Perps, Rebates, and Slippage
One of the main things that sets Avantis apart is its fee model. Instead of charging a fee to open and close every trade, the protocol uses what it calls zero-fee perpetuals. You pay no fee to open or close a position. The protocol instead takes a small fraction of your profit, and only on winning trades. If a trade does not make money, there is no profit share to pay.
On top of that, Avantis offers loss rebates, which return a portion of value on losing trades, and positive slippage. Positive slippage rewards trades that help balance the platform's open interest, meaning you can sometimes get a slightly better execution price for taking the side the system needs. These mechanics are designed to lower the running cost of active trading, though they do not remove market risk.
How the model works in practice
Keep in mind that perpetual markets still have funding and the usual market risk. The fee model changes how you pay to trade, not whether the price can move against you.
The AVNT Token and Staking
AVNT is the native token of Avantis, with a fixed supply of 1 billion. It is not required for basic trading, but it plays several roles in the ecosystem.
| AVNT use | What it does |
|---|---|
| Security Module staking | Stake AVNT as a backstop for liquidity providers. Stakers earn rewards but face up to roughly 20% slashing risk if the backstop is needed. |
| Fee discounts and XP boosts | Holding or using AVNT can reduce trading costs and boost XP in the protocol's reward programs. |
| Governance | AVNT is used to participate in protocol governance decisions. |
The Security Module is worth understanding before you stake. Staked AVNT acts as a safety buffer for LPs, which is why it can be slashed by up to around 20% in a shortfall event. That is the trade-off for the staking rewards. Also note that fixed-supply tokens can still face unlock pressure as scheduled allocations vest, which can weigh on price. If you plan to buy AVNT, verify the token's contract address and chain on DEXTools before you transact so you are buying the real asset on Base.
Common Mistakes
Troubleshooting
Most issues come down to network, balance, or approval problems. Run through these before assuming something is broken:
- Wallet will not connect: refresh the app, check that your wallet is unlocked, and confirm it is switched to the Base network.
- Transaction fails or reverts: you may need more ETH for gas, or your USDC approval may be too low. Re-approve and try again.
- USDC does not show up: verify it is on Base. USDC on another chain will not appear as Base collateral.
- Position closed unexpectedly: it was likely liquidated. Check your liquidation price and the market move that triggered it.
- Unsure about a token: look up the contract and chain on DEXTools and compare it to the official source before you act.