• Avantis raises $8M Series A co-led by Founders Fund and Pantera Capital to scale onchain derivatives.
  • The Base-based platform aims to bring real-world assets (RWAs) like forex, gold, and equities into DeFi with leverage.
  • Avantis v2 and a custom blockchain are on the roadmap to support gasless, high-efficiency trading.

Decentralized derivatives exchange Avantis has raised $8 million in a Series A round co-led by Founders Fund and Pantera Capital, marking a major step in its mission to bring real-world macro markets into DeFi.

The round also saw participation from Symbolic Capital, SALT Fund, and Flowdesk, bringing the platform’s total funding to $12 million.

Avantis operates on Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, and enables users to trade crypto and real-world assets (RWAs)—including forex, commodities, and gold—with onchain leverage. Over the past year, it has handled $7.5 billion in trading volume across 60,000+ users, becoming the largest derivatives protocol on Base.

In a post on X, the team highlighted two major challenges in the current DeFi ecosystem: “unsustainable bubbles” and RWA tokenization that favors passive instruments like U.S. T-bills over active trading.

Avantis aims to solve this by offering high-yield, liquid, and tradable RWAs across 70+ markets, with plans to expand to 100+, including equities, sports, and prediction markets.

To support this growth, Avantis is preparing a technical overhaul. Avantis v2 will include a next-gen AMM with 10x capital efficiency, cross-margining, and a custom EVM-compatible blockchain for fast, gasless trading.

“We’re growing the onchain pie by creating trading and yield alpha driven by real-world events—elections, inflation, sports, and more,” the team said.

With a lean team and TradFi veterans at the helm, Avantis is positioning itself as the “universal leverage layer” for the global market.

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah