Whilst the steps below have been put together and followed by the author I have aimed these instructions at those that are competent in both wallet creation / security and interacting with block chain technology / applications.

I will not accept any blame for loss of funds so please check, check and double check what you are doing and wherever possible test your transactions before moving larger chunks of capital.

Introduction to Avalanche

Key Technological Facts

Avalanche is a high-speed smart contracts platform that supports sub-second finality and Visa-level throughput.
Avalanche features complete support for the Ethereum Virtual Machine, and thus, Ethereum tooling works out of the box. Truffle Suite, Remix, MetaMask, MEW, and all your other favorite Ethereum tools.
Avalanche supports application-specific-sharding, empowering developers to launch applications that conform to their own specific needs.
Avalanche supports not just application-level-programmability but also network-level-programmability. This enables developers to not only control the execution of their decentralized apps but also securely manage private data.
Avalanche fully supports non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with plans to create a registry so you can discover and explore the entire universe of NFTs on Avalanche.

Key Token Economics Facts

AVAX is the native token of the Avalanche platform.
AVAX is a capped-supply token. Cap is 720M AVAX tokens, and 50% of those tokens (360M) will be on mainnet.
AVAX serves as the base unit of account in the Avalanche network, provides the base security guarantees, pays for operations, and provides a wide suite of utility services.
AVAX transaction fees are burned, increasing scarcity of AVAX.

Avalanche is an open-source platform for launching decentralized applications and enterprise blockchain deployments in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem.

https://www.avax.network/

Getting Started

In many ways Avalanche is very similar in look and feel to Ethereum and BSC so usrs of those networks should feel quite at home however work is still needed in order to simply bridge assests across networks.

The process I have mapped below requires access to a Centralised Exchange (CEX) in order to complete however there is also a native bridge that can be used here - for simplicity I have left this out of the below instructions however I can confirm I have used it and that it works. It was more expensive because it utilises / requires transactions to be submitted over the Ethereum network so if you are worried about costs staking up I would stick to the below for now.

Some background first then;

The Avalanche network is a subnet that has three chains:

P Chain - Platform
X Chain - Exchange
C Chain - Contract

Platform Chain (P Chain) coordinates validators and is also used for distribution of staking rewards and cross chain transfers. Its main function is the creation of subnets.

Exchange Chain (X Chain) used for receiving funds; note the address changes after each deposit so don't whitelist or save addresses when transferring off exchanges. Whilst it's main function as a subnet is the creation of new assets we are utilising it as the first stage to bridge our assets.

Contracts Chain (C Chain) we use this to interact with the Ethereum network, more on this later, its purpose is to execute EVM contracts.

When you withdraw funds from the exchange you need to ensure you are using the Exchange Chain (X Chain) address. You can toggle between these, see example below;

https://wallet.avax.network/wallet

Lets get going....

Effectively there are 3 things we need to do before you can get to the fun stuff;

Create an Avalanche Wallet
Purchase some Avax
Transfer Avax to your wallet

Step 1 - Create an Avalanche Wallet

You can't skip this part, I thought you could when working through it myself, you need the avalanche wallet in order to process / interact with metamask later on in the process. It's easy enough however to get one sorted. Just visit here and click on create new wallet.

https://wallet.avax.network/

Step 2 - Purchase some Avax

Avax is generally available on most spot offering exchanges, personally I used Binance but others are available - check here for more details. Once you have your Avax secured in your exchange wallet (some differentiate between main / trading / margin and not all allow direct withdrawal) make sure you can withdraw it.

Binance performs a check on your address before you withdraw to ensure the network selection is accurate. Worth mentioning here though that you should be using the Avax / Avalanche network on withdrawal.

Step 3 - Transfer your Avax to you Avalanche wallet

Like with other networks; Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain etc the life blood and base currency for Avalanche is Avax. To do anything, swap, exchange, farm etc you will need to have Avax available to pay the fees. Don't worry though... they are still relatively in expensive. Approvals for example cost around $0.43 at the time of writing.

So fund your wallet. But remember in the intro section I discussed the 3 subnets, you need to send funds to the X Chain wallet - it will begin with X-avax - see here on the right>>>

Below is a screen print from a Binance withdrawal request, note the network and the auto matching in green from Binance. Even with this in place always double (triple) check the address and the networks. I've been caught out on this myself recently using Solana.

Hit withdrawal when happy and you will have to go through the security hurdles I know you all have set up in order to take funds off the exchange. Once initiated the TX takes seconds. The ones that I tested arrived in under 2 mins.

So now that you have you Avax in your Avalanche Wallet what the hell do you do with it now....?

If you were anything like me you will probably already found the refresh button in your Avalanche wallet that will look something like the below. After a few minutes your Avax should land and your balance should read >0.

The first thing we need to do is move your funds from the X-chain onto the C-chain... "Hang on a minute - You what!?!"

We need to put our funds on the correct subnet to allow interaction with Metamask in order to interact with aggregators, DEX's etc etc on the Avalanche network. C Chain supports this however we first need to get MetaMask sorted, or more precisely we need to ensure the Avalanche network is mapped for use and ready to receive assets.

MetaMask set-up with Avalanche

If you don't have metamask you can download it here

Install MetaMask as an extension to your browser. Note that the following browsers are supported: Chrome, FireFox, Brave, and Edge.

Create a Wallet or Import an Existing Wallet

This is where you have to create or import an existing Ethereum wallet. If you don’t have an existing Ethereum wallet, please select "Create a Wallet". Always keep your Mnemonic and password to yourself and make sure to write it down. Note: This is the wallet that will be used to conduct transactions on Avalanche.

Connect Metamask to Avalanche

Click the drop-down menu and select "Custom RPC." As per highlighted opposite>>>>

Enter the following settings into the respective fields:

Network Name: Avalanche Network
New RPC URL: https://api.avax.network/ext/bc/C/rpc
ChainID: 0xa86a
Symbol: AVAX
Explorer: https://cchain.explorer.avax.network/

Fund Your MetaMask Connected to Avalanche

Send AVAX to Your MetaMask Connected to Avalanche

Go to https://wallet.avax.network/, and access your Avalanche Wallet.
On the left, there is a list of options. Click "Cross-Chain"
Choose the "C Chain (Contract)" as the destination chain
Enter the amount you would like to transfer, and then click confirm
Send the AVAX from your Avalanche wallet to your MetaMask wallet.Select "Send"
Select "C Contract" as the Source Chain
Enter your MetaMask wallet address by copying and pasting it into the "To Address" field on your Avalanche wallet.
Confirm and finalize the transaction.

Congratulations! You now have AVAX on your MetaMask wallet and can start using Avalanche.

Resources

https://support.avax.network/en/articles/4626956-how-do-i-set-up-metamask-on-avalanche

https://pangolin.exchange/tutorials/getting-started/

https://metamask.io/

Blockchain

Avalanche Chain