Aero Launches Across Seven Networks, Directing Exchange Revenue to AERO Stakers

A Seven-Network Exchange With a Shared Revenue Model

Aero’s biggest change is its reach. The decentralized exchange formed by merging Aerodrome and Velodrome launched on seven networks, with all revenue at launch going to holders who stake AERO, called sAERO. That expands the two exchanges’ existing presence on Base and OP Mainnet to Ethereum Mainnet, Arbitrum, Robinhood Chain, Ink and Arc. A broader footprint gives users more places to trade through one exchange, while giving stakers a claim on revenue generated across those markets.

Dromos Labs, Aero’s developer, said the seven networks recorded about $120 billion in decentralized exchange volume during the 30 days through Oct. 14. That’s nearly four times the combined volume Aero cited for Base and OP Mainnet alone. The comparison makes the scale of the expansion clear, though volume across multiple networks doesn’t by itself show how much trading Aero will capture or how much revenue it will earn.

“Every market is coming onchain, and any institution that can be distilled into code will be. Their margin is our opportunity,” said Alex Cutler, Dromos Labs’ CEO and founder. He said all revenue earned by Aero goes to people who stake AERO. That promise puts tokenholders at the center of the exchange’s economic pitch: Aero is asking them to help direct liquidity in exchange for a share of what the system earns.

Stakers Direct Liquidity Rewards

Aero’s central mechanism, Predictive Allocation, lets stakers direct the exchange’s liquidity-rewards budget toward markets they expect to generate revenue. Stakers receive a proportional share of those markets’ earnings in real time. Aero says participants who choose a market early and predict its performance correctly can earn more, tying potential rewards to both timing and the market’s activity.

That design asks tokenholders to make a judgment about where trading demand will emerge. The mechanism could help direct incentives toward pools that attract business, but its returns depend on the underlying market generating revenue. If you're working in this space, that distinction matters: choosing an allocation is a forecast, and a forecast can be wrong.

Liquidity providers can collect trading fees or choose AERO rewards instead. Those rewards are set in dollar terms and may increase as pool activity grows. Token issuers and other protocols can also pay to attract liquidity to markets they want to support, adding another potential source of incentives. The result is a system in which trading activity, staker decisions and outside payments can all affect how attractive a pool is to liquidity providers.

The launch includes Metaswaps, which bundle cross-chain swaps into one transaction, and Slipstream V3, an upgraded concentrated-liquidity engine with dynamic fees. These features address different parts of the trading experience: Metaswaps connect activity across networks, while Slipstream V3 changes how liquidity is organized and fees are set. An optional Autopilot tool automates sAERO allocations. Convenient automation, but it still depends on the allocation strategy the tool follows.

Market Share and Revenue Claims

Aero’s case for combining the two exchanges rests in part on their positions in their original markets. The company said Aerodrome accounted for 58% of DEX trading on Base in the third quarter, while Velodrome held 60% on OP Mainnet. Those figures give the merger a substantial starting point on both networks. They don’t establish that the same position will carry over to the five additional networks, where Aero will have to attract users and liquidity.

Aerodrome’s share of tokenized-stock trading across Ethereum and its layer-2 networks rose from about 2% at the start of September to 57% by Oct. 10, according to Aero. That’s a sharp reported change within a short period, but the figure describes a specific category of trading and comes from the company. It shouldn’t be read as a measure of Aero’s share of all exchange activity.

The company also said its predecessors had returned $578 million in revenue to tokenholders. Aero’s public metrics page put lifetime exchange revenue at about $580 million as of Monday. The amounts are close, but the distinction between revenue generated and revenue returned to tokenholders is useful when assessing the model: both figures describe a history that supports Aero’s pitch, while future results will depend on activity across the combined exchange.

Token Conversion and Audits

Aero launched without venture funding or a token sale. AERO and VELO holders can exchange their tokens for the new AERO, while vote-escrowed veAERO and veVELO positions convert to sAERO. The conversion requires action from holders: nothing moves automatically. That makes the upgrade a decision holders need to handle themselves, rather than a background change to their existing balances.

Under the published upgrade terms, each VELO converts to 0.044 AERO. Aerodrome holders receive 94.5% of the new supply and Velodrome holders 5.5%. Aero says the allocation reflects each exchange’s share of their combined revenue over the 52 weeks before the merger was announced in November 2025. The split makes the merger’s financial history part of the new token’s distribution: Aerodrome’s larger share of combined revenue corresponds to the larger allocation.

ChainSecurity, Blackthorn, Riley Holterhus and GregoAI audited the contracts before a three-week public contest on Sherlock. Aero said a Sherlock bug bounty also opened at launch. Those review steps show that the contracts received scrutiny before release, although they don’t remove the need for users to understand the conversion and staking mechanics. For holders, the practical question is straightforward: which position they hold now, what it converts into, and whether they want to take the required action.

What the Merger Needs to Prove

This is more significant than it looks: Aero is combining two established exchange brands, spreading their model across seven networks and making staker-directed rewards central to the combined product. The breadth of the launch gives the project more potential markets to serve. The harder test is whether that breadth brings sustained trading, useful liquidity and revenue that supports the rewards it promises.

Here’s the thing: reported volume and market share describe existing activity, while the merger’s value depends on what users do next. A multi-network exchange has to make movement between markets worthwhile for traders and liquidity providers, and the incentives have to remain attractive as activity changes. Similar systems typically face a balancing act between rewarding liquidity and drawing enough trading to make those rewards economically meaningful (and this is the part most people overlook).

That said, Aero’s published figures provide a clear basis for its argument: the two predecessors had strong positions on their home networks, and the combined launch reaches networks with much larger reported trading volume. The numbers here are underwhelming as a forecast, because they describe history rather than a guarantee of future performance. What this means for you depends on whether you're a trader seeking access across networks or a tokenholder deciding whether to stake and direct rewards.

And yet. The model’s success will be judged less by the size of the launch map than by whether users keep trading and providing liquidity after the initial expansion.

Get Unchained’s crypto news in your inbox with the free Unchained Daily newsletter.

Related Listen: ‘This Is a Better Version of a Stock, Period,’ Says Cutler