Aevo Referral Code: bonus
Trade Options & Perpetuals With Reduced Fees

Why Aevo is different from every other DEX

Aevo occupies a genuinely unique position in decentralized finance. While most derivatives DEXs focus exclusively on either perpetuals or options, Aevo is the only major exchange offering both product types under a single roof, on its own purpose-built Layer 2 blockchain. This is not a marketing claim — it is a technical and product distinction that matters practically for traders who want to run multi-leg strategies or hedge options positions with perpetuals without moving between platforms.

The exchange is built on Aevo L2, a custom rollup powered by the OP Stack — the same open-source framework behind Optimism, Base, and the Superchain ecosystem. Running its own L2 gives Aevo full control over transaction throughput, gas costs, and latency, which are critical properties for a derivatives exchange where speed directly impacts execution quality.

The only major DEX with both options and perpetuals

No other significant decentralized exchange combines options and perpetual futures in one interface. Platforms like dYdX, GMX, and Hyperliquid are pure perpetuals venues. Lyra and Premia focus solely on options. Aevo is the exception: a unified derivatives platform where you can buy a BTC call option and open a short ETH perpetual without switching wallets, bridging between networks, or learning a new interface.

Purpose-built OP Stack L2 rollup

Running its own rollup is a deliberate architectural choice. General-purpose L2s like Arbitrum or Optimism are optimized for broad use cases. Aevo L2 is tuned specifically for high-frequency derivatives trading — sub-second order matching, minimal latency, and transaction costs low enough that options market makers can quote tight spreads profitably. The rollup posts state commitments to Ethereum, meaning your funds remain protected by Ethereum's security even as trades execute at L2 speed.

Ribbon Finance heritage — DeFi OG with a proven track record

Aevo did not emerge from nowhere. It is the evolution of Ribbon Finance, one of the original DeFi options protocols that launched in 2021 and accumulated hundreds of millions in TVL through its Theta Vault structured products. Ribbon's vaults automated covered-call and cash-secured-put strategies for passive yield, introducing thousands of DeFi users to options markets. When the team rebranded to Aevo in 2023, they brought that deep options market-making expertise into a full trading exchange.

Pre-launch token markets

One of Aevo's most distinctive features is its pre-launch futures market — a product that lets traders take directional positions on tokens that have not yet launched or listed on major exchanges. Before a project's token generation event (TGE), Aevo creates a futures market where buyers and sellers can express views on the token's future price. This was a genuinely novel DeFi primitive that attracted significant volume and attention during the 2024 bull market, with markets for projects like EigenLayer, Ethena, and Blast trading on Aevo before their official launches.

How to apply the Aevo referral code

1. Open Aevo through the referral link Navigate to app.aevo.xyz/referral?ref=bonus — this URL automatically attaches referral code bonus to your new account. The discount and welcome bonus are credited at the account level on registration, so using this exact link is essential.
2. Connect your EVM wallet Click Connect Wallet and select MetaMask, WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet, or any EVM-compatible wallet. Aevo does not require an email address, phone number, or identity documents — your wallet is your account. The process takes under a minute.
3. Bridge funds to Aevo L2 Use the Aevo in-app bridge to deposit ETH or USDC from Ethereum mainnet onto Aevo L2. The bridge uses the native OP Stack bridge mechanism, which is audited and battle-tested. Deposits typically appear on Aevo L2 within a few minutes. You pay a one-time Ethereum gas fee for the bridge transaction.
4. Trade options and perpetuals with your discount applied Once your balance shows on Aevo L2, select any available market — BTC options, ETH perpetuals, SOL options, or pre-launch futures. Your fee discount from code bonus is active on all trades from the moment you open your first position. You can trade both options and perpetuals from the same unified account balance.

Aevo fee structure

Aevo charges separate fee schedules for its options and perpetuals markets. The tables below show the standard rates for both product types. Referral code bonus reduces fees beyond the base rates shown here — check the Aevo platform for the exact discount applied to your account after registration.

Perpetuals fees

Options fees

Annual savings estimate

The following table illustrates how fee reductions compound over a year of active trading. Calculations use the standard perpetuals taker rate of 0.05% as a baseline.

Options traders benefit similarly on the notional value of their positions. A trader buying $50,000 notional of BTC calls in a single month saves $25 per $1M notional compared to the standard taker rate. For active options traders running multi-contract strategies, these savings accumulate meaningfully over time.

Aevo vs centralized exchanges

Aevo competes directly with centralized venues for options and perpetuals volume. The comparison below highlights where Aevo's decentralized, self-custody model delivers structural advantages over Binance, Bybit, and Deribit — the three largest centralized derivatives exchanges.

Centralized exchanges have clear advantages in liquidity depth, especially for large options blocks and exotic strikes. However, Aevo is the only venue on this list where you retain custody of your funds at all times — a material risk distinction following high-profile centralized exchange failures. For traders who want to run combined options and perpetuals strategies in a non-custodial environment, Aevo has no direct competitor.

Available markets on Aevo

Aevo offers a growing selection of both options and perpetuals markets. The referral code bonus discount applies uniformly across all product types and all asset pairs listed on the platform.

Perpetuals markets

Aevo's perpetuals markets include the major crypto assets with deep liquidity: BTC-PERP, ETH-PERP, SOL-PERP, ARB-PERP, OP-PERP, DOGE-PERP, AVAX-PERP, LINK-PERP, MATIC-PERP, and additional altcoin pairs. All perpetuals settle in USDC and support cross-margin and isolated-margin modes.

Options markets

Options are available on the highest-liquidity assets: BTC options (calls and puts across weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly expiries) and ETH options with a wide range of strikes. Aevo uses an orderbook model for options — not AMM-based pricing — which means tighter spreads and more accurate implied volatility pricing from professional market makers. SOL options and additional assets are added as liquidity grows.

Pre-launch futures

Aevo pioneered decentralized pre-launch futures markets, where traders can speculate on the future price of tokens that have not yet launched. These markets settle in USDC against the token's first-day spot price on a major exchange. Past pre-launch markets have included projects across the DeFi, restaking, and Layer 2 categories. Check the Aevo platform for current active pre-launch markets.

The AEVO token

AEVO is the native governance and utility token of the Aevo platform. It launched following the rebrand from Ribbon Finance, with RBN token holders given the opportunity to migrate their holdings to AEVO at a fixed conversion ratio. The token serves multiple functions within the Aevo ecosystem.

Governance

AEVO token holders participate in protocol governance. Governance proposals cover fee parameter changes, new market listings, treasury allocations, and protocol upgrades. Holding and staking AEVO gives users a direct voice in how the platform evolves — a meaningful distinction from centralized exchanges where users have no formal input on platform decisions.

Fee discounts and staking incentives

Staking AEVO can unlock additional trading fee reductions beyond what the referral code bonus provides. Larger staked balances typically qualify for greater discounts. Stakers also earn a share of protocol revenue distributed in proportion to their staked position. For high-volume traders, combining the referral code discount with AEVO staking represents the most cost-efficient way to trade on the platform.

Ribbon Finance to AEVO migration

The RBN to AEVO migration allowed existing Ribbon Finance token holders to convert their RBN at a set ratio. This migration honored the community built around Ribbon's structured product vaults and transferred governance rights to the new Aevo platform. AEVO launched with a defined supply and distribution schedule, with allocations to team, investors, the treasury, and the community.

About Aevo — formerly Ribbon Finance

Aevo's origin story begins with Ribbon Finance, which launched in 2021 as one of the first protocols to bring structured options products to DeFi. Ribbon's Theta Vaults automated two classic options income strategies — covered calls (selling call options against held spot) and cash-secured puts (selling put options with USDC collateral) — packaging them into yield-generating vaults accessible to any DeFi user without options expertise.

At its peak, Ribbon Finance's Theta Vaults held over $300 million in total value locked, making it one of the most successful DeFi options protocols of its era. The protocol's success demonstrated genuine product-market fit for decentralized options — that there was both supply (options buyers seeking cheap hedges or speculation) and demand (yield-seekers willing to sell options) for on-chain derivatives markets.

The protocol was co-founded by Julian Koh, whose background in software engineering and deep familiarity with financial derivatives informed Ribbon's product design. Under his leadership, the team evolved from building passive structured product vaults to constructing an active trading exchange — a significant technical and organizational undertaking that culminated in the launch of the Aevo orderbook exchange and L2.

Aevo has received backing from Paradigm — arguably the most respected DeFi-focused venture fund, known for early investments in Uniswap, MakerDAO, Compound, dYdX, and Blur — and Dragonfly Capital, a crypto-native fund with a strong portfolio of DeFi infrastructure and exchange investments. This investor lineup reflects the seriousness with which institutional capital views Aevo's approach to decentralized derivatives.

The rebrand from Ribbon Finance to Aevo in 2023 was more than cosmetic. It represented a complete architectural pivot: from passive vaults that aggregated retail capital to sell options, to an active exchange where professional traders and market makers could transact directly. The new Aevo L2 infrastructure, built on OP Stack, gave the team the performance characteristics needed to support a professional-grade orderbook exchange. The unified options-and-perpetuals offering, combined with the novel pre-launch futures product, positioned Aevo as a differentiated platform in an increasingly competitive derivatives landscape.

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