Trading in Vault
Vault's Swap page is one form for both same-chain token swaps and cross-chain bridges. Pick what you're sending and what you want to receive — Vault figures out whether that's a swap or a bridge and finds you a competitive route.
The swap form
From the sidebar, open Trade and select Swap. There's a single form with a You send card, a You get card, and a flip button between them to reverse the direction.
Swaps are executed directly from your self-custody wallet — Vault never takes custody of your funds at any point during the trade.
Step-by-step walkthrough
Open Trade, then Swap
From the sidebar, select Trade → Swap to open the swap form.
Choose what you're sending
Tap the You send card to open the token selector. Pick a chain and a token — your available balance is shown for each.
Choose what you want to receive
Tap the You get card and pick the destination token. Choosing the same chain gives you a swap; choosing a different chain turns this into a bridge — the form doesn't change.
Enter an amount and review the quote
Type how much you want to send. Vault fetches a live route and shows the amount you'll receive, the exchange rate, the minimum you're guaranteed after slippage (shown as Min:), and the fee breakdown.
Confirm and sign
Tap Swap. For routes expected to take five minutes or longer, Vault shows a Confirm Swap dialog first so you know what you're signing up for. Approve the transaction in your wallet to submit the route.
Same-chain swaps vs. bridging
There's no separate "Bridge" screen — whether a trade is a swap or a bridge is decided entirely by the chains you pick for You send and You get.
Same chain on both sides
A standard token swap, for example ETH to USDC on Ethereum. Vault routes the trade through the best available DEX for that pair.
Different chains on either side
A cross-chain bridge, for example USDC on Ethereum to USDC on Arbitrum. Vault builds a route that may combine a bridge with swaps on either side, but you still review one quote and sign once.
Slippage & settings
Slippage is the difference between the price you expect when submitting a trade and the price you actually receive when it executes, since token prices move between requesting a quote and the trade settling on-chain.
Vault defaults slippage tolerance to Auto, which picks a sensible value for the pair you're trading — usually around 0.5%. You can override it with a preset (0.1% / 0.5% / 1% / 3%) or a custom value, and set how long the quote stays valid for (10m / 30m / 1h / 24h) before it expires and needs refreshing.
On desktop
Slippage and Expiry appear as two small pills below the swap form once a quote is loaded — tap either to change it.
On mobile
Tap the gear icon on the swap form to open Swap Settings, where slippage and transaction deadline are set together.
Fees & price impact
Every quote includes a Fee details panel you can expand before confirming. It shows the exchange Rate, the trade's Price impact, a line for each fee component — Vault's platform fee, any fee the route's provider charges, and estimated network gas — and a Total fees figure.
For the exact platform fee rates by trade size, see the Fees support page. There's also a $5 minimum trade value — trades below that won't quote.
Price impact safeguards
Price impact is the effect your trade has on the pool's price — larger trades against thinner liquidity move the price more. Vault scales its safeguards to how severe that impact is:
Safe (under 3%)
No warning — the Swap button works as normal.
Warn / elevated (3%–10%)
The price impact figure is highlighted so you notice it before confirming.
High (10%–20%)
You must tick "I understand and accept this price impact" before the Swap button unlocks.
Blocked (20%+)
The Swap button is replaced with a text field — you must type "I accept the risk" to reveal a Swap anyway button.
Tracking your swap
Once signed, Vault tracks live status and reflects it directly on the swap form — you'll see labels like Confirming, Swapping, or Bridging while the route is in progress, then Completed or Failed once it resolves.
Every swap and bridge is also recorded under Transactions in the Swaps tab, so you can check on it later without keeping the swap form open.