Aerodrome and Velodrome, the two decentralized exchanges (DEXs) built by Dromos Labs, will merge into a single exchange called Aero at 8:00 pm EDT on 21 Oct (00:00 UTC on 22 Oct). Aero published the terms on Friday evening on its new Upgrade Hub: one AERO becomes one new AERO, and one VELO becomes about 0.044 AERO.

The rundown

  • What changed: The conversion rates and timetable are now set. Aerodrome holders get 94.5% of the new AERO supply and Velodrome holders 5.5%, a split Aero says mirrors each protocol’s share of value created in the year before the merger was announced. Locked positions (veAERO and veVELO, the vote-escrow NFTs) become sAERO, or staked AERO, keeping their remaining lock rounded up to whole weeks. Current AERO and VELO emissions stop at launch, when the upgrade portals open on aerodrome.finance and velodrome.finance.
  • Why it matters: Aero goes live on seven chains at once: Base, Ethereum, OP Mainnet, Arc, Ink, Robinhood Chain and Arbitrum. Weekly gauge votes give way to what Aero calls Predictive Allocation, with sAERO holders steering rewards to pools on any chain and earning a share of exchange revenue. Aero said on 25 Sep that the chains it already serves handle about 17% of EVM spot volume, and that the seven-chain launch should roughly triple the volume within its reach.
  • Where it breaks: The upgrade is irreversible, and there is no automatic swap: self-custody holders must claim rewards, clear active votes and use the portal. Liquidity providers who leave positions in old pools stop earning when emissions end. The 0.044 rate is based on projected supplies at launch, so the final figure can move slightly. Merging two token economies also concentrates risk: one set of contracts, one token, seven chains. Aero says contract addresses will appear in its public GitHub and on official channels on launch day, which is exactly the window scammers like.
  • By the numbers: Aerodrome held $391.3 million and Velodrome $39.7 million in total value locked (TVL) at 00:15 UTC on 10 Oct, according to DefiLlama. At that time AERO traded at $0.803 and VELO at $0.0349 on CoinGecko. At 0.044, a VELO token is worth about $0.0353 in AERO, so VELO trades about 1.3% below its conversion value, by our arithmetic.

Key dates from the hub: final Maxi Relay rewards on 14 Oct, xVELO bridged back to OP Mainnet by 15 Oct, veNFTs withdrawn from Relays and vaults by 20 Oct. Aerodrome also lists Coinbase’s tokenized stocks on Base, according to Aero.

Post by @aeroxyz on X: https://x.com/aeroxyz/status/2108660384018403640

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.