Announcing Aero, a unified liquidity hub that will bring the best of Velodrome and Aerodrome together. Built on the MetaDEX03 architecture from Dromos Labs, Aero will consolidate two of the most powerful DEXs in DeFi into a single system designed to scale across ecosystems, capture more value, and operate with greater efficiency than ever before.

Aero’s operational hub will be Base, the leading ETH L2 ecosystem that’s grown and matured alongside Aerodrome for over two years. With low costs, high speed, and a thriving onchain economy, Base offers the perfect foundation for Aero operators to scale across Ethereum. It also provides unmatched reach, connecting liquidity on Aero to millions of Coinbase users.

From Base, using a hub-and-spoke architecture, Aero will deploy on every chain where Velodrome and Aerodrome operate today while expanding to Ethereum Mainnet, Arc and Syndicate,  for the first time ever creating a single unified liquidity network for Ethereum.

Together, these networks will form a unified liquidity layer built for the next decade of onchain finance, one that connects chains, markets, and participants through a seamless experience.

At launch, the VELO and AERO communities will unify behind a single token: AERO.

AERO is designed to coordinate the entire unified network.

The MetaDEX03 OS from Dromos Labs will allow AERO to capture and coordinate value across the entire onchain economy.

With Aero bringing together the Velodrome and Aerodrome ecosystems, 100% of the upgraded AERO token will be distributed to their communities at launch:

• 94.5% to AERO and veAERO holders

• 5.5% to VELO and veVELO holders

This split reflects one simple fact: each token represents a claim on the economic output of its protocol.

To determine the distribution, we analyzed the revenue generated by both protocols over the past 52 weeks:

• Aerodrome generated $260 million

• Velodrome generated $15 million

A combined $275 million in value.

Since tokenholders are equal in the eyes of the protocol, the initial distribution will mirror each protocol’s share of total value created.

Clear, simple, and fair.

If nothing else changed, every holder would maintain the same economic claim they hold today, just unified under one token.

Decentralized exchanges generate over $5.5 billion a year in trading fees, more than 20× more than what Aerodrome and Velodrome captured combined over the past year. By connecting networks, AERO will be able to tap into more markets to capture and concentrate more value into the token.

And, thanks to the REV Engine in MetaDEX03, the value captured by the new AERO token will expand far beyond swap fees.

At launch, Aero will add additional revenue streams:

• Front-end trade routing

• Internal MEV auctions in Slipstream V3

• DEX aggregating

• Cross-chain bridging

• Liquidity automation

• Auto-compounding

• veNFT marketplace

In the broader DEX market, these verticals are estimated to generate over $2 billion in annual fees.

Aero will integrate these features, deliver them with the most competitive fees in the industry, and route 100% of value to the AERO token.

Altogether, Aero will enter a $7B+ market, unified for the first time under a single liquidity layer.

Aero aggregates capital and users into a single, responsive platform. Eliminating fragmentation, maintaining composability, and making it easy to integrate across services to deliver on three core experiences:

With Metaswaps, Aero will abstract away all the complexity of cross-chain trading.

• No bridges

• No switching networks

• No juggling gas on different chains

Users will tap into the deep, efficient liquidity of Slipstream V3, and trades will route automatically across the network.

Aero also plans to include a built-in marketplace for trading locked positions, directly integrated into the experience.

With Autopilot, earning onchain becomes intuitive.

• Liquidity providers will be able to create optimized, auto-rebalancing positions

• AERO holders will be able to lock, vote, claim, compound, or convert rewards automatically

• Advanced users will still have full control when they want it

Under the hood, Aero will use the REV Engine from MetaDEX03 to capture revenue from actions across the platform and redistribute the value to veAERO holders.

Aero will give builders three clear pathways to launch, each designed for a different kind of project:

• Aero Launch: Permissionless pools that earn trading fees from day one, without burning liquidity.

• Aero Ignition: Community-driven launches powered by aligned incentives.

• Aero Verified: KYC-enabled pools for institutions that need compliance and transparency built directly into the token.

Together, these options will make Aero the most flexible and aligned environment for token issuers, from experimental builders to the world’s largest institutions.

With the launch of Aero, the Aerodrome Foundation will combine the lessons and economic power from its Public Goods Fund and Flight School programs, merging them into a single initiative:

The Momentum Fund will turn the veAERO network into a coordinated capital engine, one designed to grow key markets, stabilize the economy, and align contributors around a shared mission for the long term.

It will operate through three core mandates:

The Momentum Fund will direct AERO rewards to deepen liquidity for core pools, help new launches gain traction, and give high-quality projects a strong foundation across any chain Aero touches.

This is the same approach that helped Aerodrome scale assets like USDC, EURC, and cbBTC on Base, extended across the full Aero network.

Thanks to the MetaDEX design, the Fund will share in the growth of the pools it supports, and will direct 100% of that value back to the token, but doing so through a rules-based approach:

Building reserves during strong markets and deploying these reserves through market-aware buyback and burns when sentiment cools, reducing supply from the market.

The Fund will also be able to buy locked tokens, taking advantage of dislocations between AERO and veAERO markets.

This will create disciplined, onchain capital management, the kind of structure traditionally found in institutional investment programs.

The Fund will expand Aero’s contributor base by attracting and rewarding high-impact builders.

Through veAERO, the Fund will offer short- or long-term economic participation to individuals or teams who deliver meaningful value, such as new features, integrations, research, or full protocol contributions.

Instead of competing with talent, Aero will internalize it, strengthening the network from within.

Development is already underway. Auditors and partners are lined up. Aero is planned to launch Q2, 2026.

Stay tuned for more details.