In eleven days, the DEX that owns Base becomes a seven-chain liquidity layer.
Aerodrome is the leading decentralized exchange on Base, the Layer-2 network incubated by Coinbase.
It runs the vote-escrow model: users lock $AERO as veAERO to vote on which liquidity pools receive emissions, and in return collect 100 percent of protocol trading fees paid in stablecoins and blue-chip assets.
Protocols on Base compete for that liquidity by offering incentives to veAERO voters, which creates recurring buy-side demand for the token tied to liquidity competition rather than speculation alone.
September delivered over 15 million dollars in rewards to veAERO voters, per the MetaMask price-page summary.
On October 21, 2026, Aerodrome merges with Velodrome, the leading DEX on OP Mainnet, into a unified protocol called Aero.
The unified protocol launches across seven EVM chains: Base, Ethereum Mainnet, Arc, OP Mainnet, Ink, Robinhood Chain, and Arbitrum.
Under Aero, a single $AERO token replaces the two legacy token systems: legacy $AERO converts 1:1 and each $VELO converts at approximately 0.044 new AERO.
Aerodrome routes swaps across stable, volatile, and concentrated-liquidity pools to source the best available price.
The new protocol stack, built by developer Dromos Labs and called MetaDEX03, adds a headline feature called Metaswaps: cross-chain token swaps inside one unified liquidity layer.
The merger replaces the weekly voting cycle with real-time allocation, where sAERO holders direct rewards to liquidity pools with a 47-hour cooldown when allocation changes begin.
Aero also enables permissionless token launches, letting any project create and list a token without approval from the protocol team.
The two legacy exchanges already account for roughly 17 percent of all EVM spot trading volume, per Crypto Briefing coverage of the merger.
DeFiLlama data showed about 422 million dollars in combined total value locked as of October 9.
The expansion is expected to grow the addressable market from roughly 7 billion to over 63 billion dollars in TVL across the target chains, per the MetaMask price-page summary.
Coinbase announced it will support the legacy token conversion during a November 2 to 4, 2026 migration window, with legacy $AERO converting at no fee.
The unified Aero competes directly with $UNI, the dominant DEX across chains.
Its edge is the vote-escrow flywheel: fee sharing plus vote-directed emissions keeps liquidity sticky on one venue, while the dominant incumbent spreads fees across fragmented pools.
The cross-chain Metaswaps layer is the outflank move: one liquidity layer serving seven networks instead of seven siloed deployments.
The Robinhood Chain deployment also brings tokenized stock products into the lineup, an asset class single-chain incumbents barely touch.
Market cap sits around 893 million dollars with a fully diluted valuation near 1.78 billion dollars, per CoinGecko.
About 1.005 billion tokens circulate against a total supply of about 1.998 billion, roughly 50 percent circulating, with no hard max supply.
Tokenomist lists the next unlock for October 15, 2026, tagged to the airdrop allocation, with most allocations releasing through cliff mechanisms.
Emissions from both legacy platforms stop at the October 21 merger, and Aerodrome holders are set to receive about 94.5 percent of the new supply.
Value capture belongs to lockers: $AERO only earns when staked as sAERO, which directs allocations and collects 100 percent of exchange revenue.
Not financial advice. DYOR.
$AERO