The program will wrap up with its 35th and final flight on April 8, 2026, marking the successful conclusion of its mandate within the Aerodrome economy. The Aerodrome Foundation designed Flight School to bootstrap long-term alignment, grow the veAERO community, and reduce floating AERO supply. It achieved those objectives decisively.

As Aerodrome prepares for its next phase, the Flight School veNFT will transition into a more comprehensive, permanent capital allocation framework: the Momentum Fund.

Final Flight School Timeline

• April 8, 2026: The final Flight School epoch ends, completing the program’s 35th flight.

• April 8, 2026 (23:59 UTC): Deadline for eligible veAERO locks to receive the standard Flight School bonus.

• April 9, 2026 (00:00 UTC): Flight School formally concludes and merges with the Public Goods Fund (PGF) to form the Momentum Fund.

Evolution of Flight School and PGF

Flight School demonstrated that disciplined use of veAERO voting power could simultaneously grow alignment and shrink liquid supply. Over its lifetime, it distributed more than 60 million AERO in locked rewards and helped grow the veAERO holder base to over 30,000 participants.

In parallel, the Public Goods Fund (PGF) acted as a catalyst for ecosystem resilience. By using its voting power to bootstrap liquidity for essential assets like USDC, EURC, and cbBTC, the PGF created the deepest pools onchain. Since October 2025, it further evolved to include market-aware buybacks, purchasing AERO during market weakness to increase protocol-level governance capacity.

The Momentum Fund

The Momentum Fund unifies these strategies into a single, mandate-driven capital engine. By consolidating Flight School and PGF, the Fund gains the scale necessary to act as a permanent support engine for the AERO economy.

As of the migration, the Momentum Fund will control approximately 25% of total veAERO voting power and a powerful initial capital base, comprised of:

• 165M veAERO (~16%) from PGF

• 75M veAERO (~7%) from Flight School

• 2M veAERO (~2%) from the Velodrome Foundation (PGF)

• Initial Capital Base: All existing PGF reserves (~$5.5M USDC) and ongoing voting rewards.

Under the new mandate, any buybacks will follow a rules-based, market-aware approach, deploying more capital when AERO trades at a discount relative to its historical range. This ensures reserves are used opportunistically and efficiently. Following the launch of Aero in Q2 2026, the Fund may also strategically acquire veNFTs (veAERO) when pricing inefficiencies between AERO and veAERO are sufficiently attractive.

A Value-Accretive Engine for the Aero Economy

The Momentum Fund is designed to function as a sophisticated capital allocator, ensuring that the Fund's resources are deployed with maximum efficiency to benefit all AERO holders:

• Market-Aware Programmatic Buybacks: The Fund’s mandate allows it to utilize a rules-based framework to execute buybacks during periods of market fluctuations.

• Strategic Growth: The Momentum Fund will direct its power toward the most productive and high-potential liquidity pools, maximizing the protocol’s long-term growth potential and creating a more attractive environment for liquidity providers.

• Total Value Retention: The Momentum Fund operates on a principle of 100% value retention. All rewards generated by the Fund’s position are redirected back into the ecosystem, ensuring that growth is compounded for the benefit of the entire community.

• Systemic Supply Reduction: By giving the Fund the capability to remove AERO from the circulating supply, the Fund’s mandate allows it to act as a deflationary force.

The Momentum Fund plans to follow three general postures depending on market environment and protocol performance:

1. Supply Reduction

The Fund may enter a supply reduction posture, under which additional AERO or veAERO acquired is, by default, burned. This permanently reduces circulating supply and reinforces long-term protocol health.

2. veAERO Lock Bonus

Where appropriate, the Fund may deploy targeted veAERO bonus-locking programs to encourage community participation, drawing on mechanisms previously validated through Flight School. 3. veAERO Voting Power Growth

The Fund may increase its veAERO voting power to maintain or boost its ability to support protocol growth and economic health. Target levels are evaluated over time and may adjust as conditions evolve.

The Fund will continuously monitor outcomes and market conditions, and will only consider strategic adjustments if warranted, with the objective of preserving clarity, discipline, and long-term protocol alignment.

Proven in Practice

The Foundation’s programmatic buyback model is battle tested. Beginning in October 2025, the PGF operated under programmatic Momentum Fund rules, deploying capital countercyclically. Over 13 epochs, it acquired 8.7M AERO (averaging 670K AERO per epoch). This consistently represented 15-25% of the total emissions distributed each epoch, providing a deflationary counter to inflation through emissions during a time of market, and protocol revenue, volatility.

With consolidated voting power and reserves, the Momentum Fund will meaningfully amplify this impact.

Why This Matters Now

As Aerodrome approaches the launch of Aero in Q2 2026, the protocol is moving from a growth phase into a position of dominance. The Momentum Fund is the engine that will allow Aerodrome to scale efficiently and compete to become the largest liquidity marketplace in DeFi.

We are grateful to every participant who helped make Flight School a success. We look forward to this next chapter of protocol-led growth and supply discipline.

1. What is Aero?

Aero is a forthcoming unified liquidity layer built on the MetaDEX03 operating system from Dromos Labs. It will coordinate a cross-chain liquidity network, providing an efficient and streamlined way for users to trade, earn, and launch tokens across the onchain economy.

Aero will provide three core functions:

Trade

Swap tokens across the multi-chain ecosystem. Aero will automatically route trades through the deepest, most efficient Slipstream V3 liquidity on any connected chain.

Earn

Earn AERO rewards by providing liquidity, or earn voting rewards as a token operator (veAERO voter). Aero will include Autopilot, a suite of automation tools designed to make participation simple.

Launch

Bootstrap and scale liquidity for new or existing token projects. Builders and token issuers will be able to create markets using Aero Launch, Aero Ignition, or Aero Verified, each designed for different project stages and needs.

How does Aero bring Velodrome and Aerodrome together?

Aero will unify Aerodrome and Velodrome to deliver a cohesive, cross-chain MetaDEX experience:

• One liquidity layer across chains

• A single token that concentrates value capture and coordination: AERO

• Unified governance and economics through veAERO

• Seamless cross-chain routing powered by Metaswaps

• Expanded value streams through the REV Engine

• Targeted, dynamic emissions via the Adaptive Emissions Rate (AER) Engine

• A next-generation AMM design with Slipstream V3

• Advanced automation and simplified participation through Autopilot

What does it mean that VELO and AERO will upgrade into AERO?

VELO and AERO tokens will both upgrade into a single AERO token as part of the migration. The unified AERO token will coordinate value, governance, and liquidity across the entire network.

The distribution reflects the actual economic output generated by the two protocols over the 52 week-long epochs leading up to the 11/12 announcement:

• Aerodrome generated $260M

• Velodrome generated $15M

• Combined total: $275M

Resulting allocation:

• 94.5% to AERO and veAERO (Aerodrome) holders

• 5.5% to VELO and veVELO (Velodrome) holders

This is a transparent, data-driven split based solely on real revenue produced. Holders will maintain the same proportional claim they have today, but within a potentially larger, unified economy.

How will the migration work?

Aero plans to introduce dedicated, easy-to-use migration tools enabling:

• Liquidity providers to migrate existing deposits

• Token issuers to migrate their pools

• veAERO and veVELO holders to migrate their locks

Specific exchanges are expected to manage the migration for their users. However, the specific timing and operational steps are determined by each exchange individually, so users should rely on their exchange’s official updates.

The goal is to make the transition fast, predictable, and seamless for every participant in the ecosystem. Complete documentation will be provided closer to the launch date.

What chains will Aero support?

Aero will be infinitely scalable and capable of deploying to any chain in the Ethereum/EVM ecosystem.

Currently planned chains include:

1. Base (hub of the network)

2. Ethereum Mainnet

3. OP Mainnet

4. Arc

5. Syndicate

6. Celo

7. Ink

8. Soneium

9. Unichain

10. Lisk

11. Superseed

12. Mode

13. Metal L2

14. Swellchain

15. Fraxtal

16. Tea

What tech features will power Aero?

Aero will be built on the full MetaDEX03 stack:

Slipstream V3

• Capital-efficient AMM

• Internalized MEV auction

• Dynamic, adaptive fees

• Verified institutional pools

• Onchain Order Flow Payments

Metaswaps

• Seamless cross-chain trading

• Self-paying swaps

• MEV-protected private execution

• Native Slipstream liquidity

Metalane

• Vendor-neutral generic messaging

• Interop-abstracted lightweight layer

• Internalized interop transport costs

Autopilot

• Automated LP strategies

• Automated voting, claiming, compounding for veAERO

• One-click optimized liquidity provisioning

How will rewards work?

With MetaDEX03, emissions will be truly dynamic. The AER (Adaptive Emissions Rate) Engine will help ensure that only the emissions required to support healthy liquidity are released.

AER Engine will dynamically calibrate rewards at the pool level, ensuring:

• No unnecessary overpayment for liquidity

• Emissions stay competitive where liquidity is most valuable

• The system grows efficiently alongside market conditions

• Rewards rates surge during times of increased trading activity 

This will create a far more precise and optimized model than traditional DEX emissions models.

REV Engine: Expanding Value Streams

In parallel, the REV Engine will expand Aero’s ability to generate and internalize new sources of revenue, value that will flow to the AERO token and support liquidity providers without increasing inflation.

At launch, Aero will be able to route value from multiple new verticals, like:

• Applicable front-end swap fees

• Internal MEV auctions in Slipstream V3

• Cross-chain gas payments

• Liquidity automation

• Auto-compounding services

• veNFT marketplace activity

These verticals represent over $2B in annual fees across the industry today.

Aero plans to integrate these services directly, using them to strengthen token economics while keeping fees among the lowest in the industry.

The combination of AER + REV means:

• More value in (REV)

• Less emissions out (AER)

• Stronger economics for LPs and token holders

What is the Momentum Fund?

The Momentum Fund will be the Aero Foundation’s flagship capital allocation program.

It applies lessons from the Public Goods Fund (PGF) and Flight School into one unified initiative for maximizing the impact of veAERO. 

Resources from the PGF and Flight School will be reallocated to the Momentum Fund program, which will focus on three mandates:

Grow

Support strategic pools, bootstrap new assets, and accelerate partner growth across the network.

Stabilize

Use rewards to buy back AERO, manage supply intelligently, and lock tokens when beneficial to governance.

Align

Attract top contributors, such as developers, researchers, and other teams, by offering a short- or long-term share of veAERO's value generation to incentivize them.

How will this upgrade benefit users, LPs, builders, and voters?

Aero will unlock a unified liquidity layer that benefits everyone:

Traders

• Trade seamlessly across chains

• Best-price routing through Slipstream V3

• No manual bridges, no network switching, no gas seeding

LPs

• More efficient AMM

• Auto-rebalancing positions (via Autopilot)

• An extended library of pools to earn rewards from across ecosystems

Builders

• Launch tokens that are discoverable across chains

• Bootstrap liquidity with access to incentives

• Access institutional-grade tools (e.g. Verified pools)

• Simple SDKs for web (TypeScript) and agentic (Python) integrations

Token Operators/veAERO Voters

• Increased internalized revenue streams, powered by REV Engine

• More strategic and net-lower emissions rate, powered by AER Engine

• Competition for dominance across the EVM

10. When will migration details be released?

Q1 2026.

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.

One Token

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.

But the Opportunity Ahead Is Much Larger

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.

Aero will be able to add additional revenue streams like:

• 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 be able to 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.

One 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:

1. Trade: Seamless Liquidity Across Chains

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.

2. Earn: Automated, Optimized Participation

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.

3. Launch: The Best Place to Bring a Token Onchain

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.

One Engine

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

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:

1. Grow

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.

2. Stabilize

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.

3. Align

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.

Aero is Coming Soon

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

Stay tuned for more details.