Last updated: October 2026
Aerodrome is the largest decentralized exchange on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2. It’s where most Base tokens get their liquidity. Its AERO token decides which pools receive rewards, and protocols compete, and pay, for those votes. In “Aerodrome crypto” discussions, the key thing to understand is the ve(3,3) model, so that’s the focus here, along with two recent developments. In November 2025 a domain hijack hit Aerodrome’s website. And in October 2026, Aerodrome and its sister DEX Velodrome began merging into a single platform called Aero.
This guide is part of our DeFi hub, which maps every related guide in one place.
Key takeaways
- Aerodrome launched on Base in August 2023, built by the team behind Optimism’s Velodrome (now Dromos Labs). It uses the ve(3,3) design that began with Andre Cronje’s Solidly.
- Locking AERO gives voting power (veAERO). Voters direct emissions to pools and receive those pools’ trading fees plus “bribes” from protocols.
- On November 21, 2025, attackers hijacked the aerodrome.finance and velodrome.finance domains and served a wallet drainer. The smart contracts were not exploited.
- Dromos Labs announced in November 2025 that Aerodrome and Velodrome would merge into Aero, with 94.5% of the new token supply going to AERO holders. Reports say legacy emissions ended on October 21, 2026, as migration began.
What Is the Aerodrome DEX?
Aerodrome is an automated market maker (AMM). Traders swap against liquidity pools instead of an order book. It offers three pool types:
- Volatile pools: standard x × y = k pools for uncorrelated pairs such as ETH/USDC.
- Stable pools: a flatter curve for pairs that should trade near 1:1, such as USDC/USDT or ETH/cbETH. The design is similar in spirit to Curve.
- Slipstream: concentrated-liquidity pools, added in 2024, where liquidity providers choose a price range for higher capital efficiency.
What makes Aerodrome different isn’t the pools themselves. It’s how rewards are distributed. Most DEXs decide internally which pools get incentives. On Aerodrome, token holders vote on it every week.
History
The model traces back to Solidly, launched by Andre Cronje on Fantom in early 2022. It combined Curve’s vote-escrow tokens (“ve”) with the “(3,3)” game theory popularized by OlympusDAO. Solidly itself stumbled, but a separate team relaunched the idea as Velodrome on Optimism in mid-2022, where it became the dominant DEX.
The same team launched Aerodrome on Base on August 28, 2023, shortly after Base opened to the public. Coinbase’s Base Ecosystem Fund took a veAERO position, and Aerodrome quickly became Base’s main liquidity hub, the largest DEX on Base by TVL for most of 2024 and 2025. The team later reorganized as Dromos Labs.
Two later events matter for users:
- November 21, 2025, front-end hijack: attackers gained access to the projects’ domain-registrar account, changed DNS records and stripped DNSSEC. They pointed aerodrome.finance and velodrome.finance to a cloned site running a wallet drainer. Users who signed approvals lost funds, with estimates ranging from about $700,000 to over $1 million. The teams told users to use their ENS mirror domains (such as aero.drome.eth.limo) until the domains were secured. A similar but smaller domain hijack had hit both sites in 2023.
- November 11, 2025, Aero announced: Dromos Labs announced it would merge Aerodrome and Velodrome into a single DEX called Aero, running on its METADEX03 engine (with Slipstream V3). It would expand from Base to more networks, starting with Ethereum mainnet and Circle’s Arc chain, with Base as the main hub. The launch slipped from its original Q2 2026 target. October 2026 reports say emissions on both legacy DEXs stopped on October 21, 2026, when the migration began.
How Aerodrome Works
The weekly flywheel
- Lock: AERO holders lock tokens for up to four years and receive veAERO, an NFT whose voting power grows with the size and length of the lock.
- Vote: each weekly “epoch,” veAERO holders vote for the pools that should receive new AERO emissions.
- Emit: liquidity providers in those pools earn AERO in proportion to the votes.
- Earn: voters receive 100% of the trading fees from the pools they voted for, plus any bribes (incentives) that protocols deposit to attract votes.
- Repeat: protocols that need liquidity for their token buy AERO or pay bribes, which creates demand for the token.
A worked example
A new Base project wants deep liquidity for its token. Instead of paying liquidity providers directly, it deposits $20,000 of bribes on its pool’s voting page. veAERO holders vote for that pool to earn the bribes. The pool then receives a share of AERO emissions, which attracts liquidity providers. If the AERO emissions that the votes direct are worth more than $20,000, the project has paid less for its liquidity than it would have through direct rewards. That is why bribe markets exist.
Note: under the Aero migration, veAERO and veVELO positions are reported to convert into a new staked form, sAERO, with remaining lock time carried over. Check the official Aero documentation for the current mechanics before locking anything new.
Tokenomics
- Genesis: 500 million AERO. Much of it went to veAERO lockers (including Velodrome voters and the Base ecosystem), with the rest to liquidity incentives and the team.
- Emissions: started at 10 million AERO a week, rose for the first few weeks, then decayed about 1% a week. Later, veAERO voters took control of the rate through the “Aero Fed” mechanism.
- Rebases: lockers received weekly anti-dilution rebases, so locked holders were diluted less than unlocked ones.
- The Aero merger: per Dromos Labs’ plan, AERO and VELO combine into a single AERO token. Existing AERO holders get about 94.5% of the new supply and VELO holders about 5.5%, mirroring the two DEXs’ revenue split. Reports describe AERO converting 1:1. Get the VELO conversion rate from official sources, since secondary reports have differed.
How to Buy and Use AERO
- Get onto Base. Withdraw ETH or USDC from an exchange directly to Base, or bridge. See how to buy on Base.
- Buy AERO on a centralized exchange that lists it, or swap on Base. Confirm the token contract from official docs or CoinGecko.
- Use the right URL. Bookmark the official site. If there is ever any doubt about the main domain, use the ENS mirror the team publishes.
- Choose your role: trade, provide liquidity (earn AERO emissions, with impermanent loss risk), or lock and vote (earn fees and bribes, with your tokens locked).
For other options on the same chain, see our best Base DeFi projects, and our Base explainer for the network itself.
Aerodrome vs Uniswap on Base
| Aerodrome (Aero) | Uniswap on Base | |
|---|---|---|
| Who earns trading fees | veAERO/sAERO voters | Liquidity providers |
| How LPs are paid | AERO emissions directed by votes | Swap fees, plus any external incentives |
| Cost for a new token to get liquidity | Bribes to voters, often cheaper | Must attract LPs with fees or its own rewards |
| Token dilution | Ongoing emissions | No emissions to LPs from UNI |
| Best for | Protocols bootstrapping liquidity, active voters | Passive LPs, routing trades on established pairs |
Aggregators like 1inch, 0x and the Coinbase app’s DEX routing often split a single trade across both, so as a trader you may use Aerodrome liquidity without visiting the site.
Risks: Is AERO a Good Investment?
The bull case rests on Base staying one of the busiest L2s and on Aero’s expansion to Ethereum and other chains bringing in more fees and bribes for stakers. The bear case is that emissions keep outpacing real demand. It also includes competition from Uniswap v4 hooks and other DEXs, and the risk that the merger’s new contracts and token conversion create confusion or bugs. AERO’s price has historically moved with Base activity and the wider DeFi market. Treat it as a high-risk position sized accordingly, and compare fee revenue against emissions value on a dashboard such as DefiLlama before buying.
Pros and Cons
- Pro: The main liquidity hub on Base, one of the busiest L2s.
- Pro: Voters earn real trading fees and bribes, not just new tokens.
- Pro: Contracts have held up. The 2025 losses came from a domain hijack, not a contract exploit.
- Con: Ongoing emissions dilute holders who don’t lock.
- Con: ve(3,3) is complex, and long locks tie up capital.
- Con: Centralized web domains have been hijacked twice (2023 and 2025).
- Con: The Aero migration adds execution risk and new contracts.
FAQ
Is Aerodrome safe to use?
Aerodrome’s core contracts are audited forks of Velodrome’s and have operated for years without a major contract exploit. The real-world losses came from front-end domain hijacks in 2023 and 2025. Protect yourself by bookmarking the official site, using wallet transaction previews, and never signing unexpected unlimited approvals. During the Aero migration, follow only official instructions.
What is happening to Aerodrome and Velodrome?
Dromos Labs is combining them into one DEX, Aero, with a single AERO token. AERO holders get about 94.5% of the new supply and VELO holders about 5.5%. Reports say legacy emissions ended on October 21, 2026, and vote-escrow positions convert to sAERO. Coinbase has said it will convert AERO and VELO balances held on Coinbase into the new AERO between 2 and 4 November 2026. Check the official announcement for exact steps and deadlines.
Do I have to lock AERO to earn?
No. Liquidity providers earn AERO emissions without locking, and traders don’t need AERO at all. Locking was the way to earn trading fees and bribes as a voter. Under the new Aero design, staking (sAERO) plays that role. Locked or staked tokens can’t be sold until the lock ends.
How is Aerodrome different from Uniswap?
Uniswap’s liquidity providers earn trading fees, and incentives are set by protocol teams or governance outside the pools. On Aerodrome, liquidity providers earn AERO emissions while voters earn the trading fees, and protocols pay bribes to steer emissions toward their pools. That makes Aerodrome cheaper for new tokens to bootstrap liquidity, and more inflationary.
Crypto is volatile and risky; this is education, not financial advice. Do your own research.
