Two decentralised exchanges, Aerodrome and Velodrome, are becoming one protocol called Aero, announced in a statement on Wednesday 21 October, The Block reports.
Aero will run on seven networks: Ethereum, Base, Robinhood Chain, Ink, OP Mainnet, Arc and Arbitrum. Dromos Labs develops it, and Alex Cutler is its founder and chief executive.
The scale argument is market share. Aerodrome handled 58 percent of DEX volume on Base in the third quarter, and Velodrome 60 percent on OP Mainnet. The seven networks together process about $120 billion a month in DEX trading, though that is the chains’ total, not Aero’s own.
AERO and VELO tokens will migrate into a new AERO token, and the vote-escrowed versions, veAERO and veVELO, will convert to sAERO. Cutler says all of Aero’s revenue goes to AERO stakers, who can steer the liquidity rewards budget toward markets they expect to earn revenue.
New features include Metaswaps, which links trading across networks using existing onchain liquidity, and Slipstream V3, with fees that rise when markets move fast and MEV capture on supported layer-2 networks.
What the announcement leaves out matters for holders. The conversion ratios are not stated, there is no total value locked figure, and no migration schedule or deadline has been published. The report does not say whether holders must act or whether the conversion happens automatically.
A merger of two market leaders on different chains is a cleaner pitch than the terms behind it, and the terms are the part holders will be asked to accept.
