Aerodrome and Velodrome to merge into Aero

Dromos Labs unveils Aero to merge Aerodrome and Velodrome on Base and Optimism.

Dromos Labs announced the launch of the Aero trading hub. The new platform will unite the decentralised exchanges Aerodrome and Velodrome on Base and Optimism.

The best place to trade, earn, and launch.

Hello, Aero. pic.twitter.com/fz653S1n3r

— Dromos (@DromosLabs) November 12, 2025

The launch is expected in the second quarter of 2026. Aero will merge Aerodrome’s AERO and Velodrome’s VELO into a single AERO token. The coin will “grant a right to a share of the generated yield” across the platform’s DEX ecosystem.

The allocation will preserve the current revenue split between the protocols: 5.5% of tokens will go to existing VELO holders and 94.5% to AERO holders.

As part of the merger, the project will expand to Ethereum and Arc from Circle.

“Aerodrome’s success on Base inspired us to expand: through Aero we will be able to operate effectively in other Ethereum networks. The world once went online en masse — now the same is happening with onchain technologies. Aero will lead the creation of a next-generation financial system — more advanced, faster and more accessible than today’s,” said Dromos CEO Alexander Cutler during a presentation.

A single technology layer

The developers aim to build on Aero a “unified trading platform for the entire onchain economy”. The strategy includes a single interface for access to simplified Earn programmes, trading NFTs and other tokens, and additional services.

Aerodrome Foundation’s executive director Luis de la Cerda said the protocol is fully composable and can be easily integrated into any wallets, exchanges or systems with AI agents.

In parallel with the Aero announcement, MetaDEX 03 launched — a new operating system for protocols designed to expand cross-chain functionality for the decentralised exchange and increase liquidity-provider returns.

A DEX OS more interoperable, more responsive, and more powerful.

A DEX OS built not just to out compete today, but to scale with the possibility of tomorrow.

Introducing MetaDEX03. pic.twitter.com/S7jPNGsaBU

— Dromos (@DromosLabs) November 12, 2025

Two years in the making, MetaDEX 03 is a “dual-engine model” that combines the new AER and REV mechanisms.

According to Cutler, its goal is to keep ancillary revenue streams within the protocol and curb value leakage from the ecosystem to rival platforms such as Uniswap.

Dromos CFO Dan Wick stressed that REV can increase revenue by 40%, while AER can cut operating costs by $34m.

On November 11, the Uniswap Labs and Uniswap Foundation teams presented a governance proposal, UNIfication, which would activate a “fee switch” to reward UNI tokenholders.

Cutler called the move “a mistake”.

Never in my life did I believe, that on the eve of one the biggest days of my life — that of the everyone at @DromosLabs — that we could ever be so lucky as to be gifted, by our biggest rival, a mistake of this magnitude.

Hope you tune in Wednesday. 🛫https://t.co/KMzZccsYNc

— alexander (@wagmiAlexander) November 10, 2025

“Never did I think that on the eve of one of the most important days of my life — and of all of us at Dromos Labs — we could be so lucky as to receive from our main competitor a gift in the form of a mistake of this magnitude,” he wrote.

New features for Base

Aerodrome is the largest decentralised exchange on Base and one of the market’s most profitable protocols. Over the past 30 days, the platform generated about $14.8m.

As part of the strategy to retain additional profit within the ecosystem, MetaDEX 03 will integrate the Slipstream V3 system. It is the industry’s first design that enables capturing MEV revenue at the DEX level, bypassing centralised sequencers. As Cutler noted, they are the ones who usually collect “millions of dollars” from these fees.

The Dromos team also unveiled “verified pools” — a technology that allows developers to integrate different ZK stacks (including verification solutions from Coinbase and World).

Institutional investors will be able to use the DEX in full compliance with regulatory requirements.

The protocol will also include a Metaswaps tool, optimised for cross-chain swaps across the EVM ecosystem.

In October, DEX trading volume reached a record $613bn. The top three were Uniswap, PancakeSwap and HumidiFi.