Aero Says Goodbye to ve(3,3) Economic Model After Two Delays and Merges Online

After generating over $500 million for holders on Base, Aero has canceled weekly voting and fixed emission schedules, transitioning to a new economic model linked to revenue across seven chains.

Written by: Sanqing, Foresight News

On October 22 at 8:00 AM, the emissions of Aerodrome and Velodrome will cease simultaneously, with the merged Aero launching across Base, Ethereum Mainnet, OP Mainnet, Arc, Ink, Arbitrum, and Robinhood Chain.

In terms of exchange rates, old AERO will be exchanged for new AERO at a 1:1 ratio, and 1 VELO will be exchanged for 0.044 new AERO; approximately 94.5% of the new token holders will be from Aerodrome, while about 5.5% will be from Velodrome. Self-custodied tokens must be manually upgraded through the official upgrade portal, and the operation is irreversible; tokens held on exchanges will be converted uniformly by the platform.

This merger plan was announced at the New Horizon launch event in November 2025, originally scheduled to launch on the Ethereum Mainnet and Arc in Q2 2026, but the target was adjusted to September and then set for October due to extended audit periods. The plan itself has undergone several changes over the year.

Weekly Voting Replaced by "Predictive Allocation"

In the old mechanism of Aerodrome and Velodrome, ve holders voted weekly, determining the direction of token emissions based on the previous week's fee performance across various pools.

At last year's launch event, the development team Dromos stated that they would retain the ve(3,3) model. This time, the launch plan has shifted to "staking": veAERO and veVELO will be converted to sAERO, with the remaining duration preserved and rounded up to the nearest week, while permanent locks will convert to the longest staking period, which cannot be unstaked before expiration. Unlike before, sAERO will no longer rebase and can be transferred.

The weekly voting mechanism will be replaced by the newly launched Predictive Allocation, with rewards continuously flowing into various pools. sAERO holders will no longer have to wait for weekly concentrated voting; they can adjust allocations multiple times within a week (initially, each position must have a 47-hour gap between two adjustments), and will simultaneously receive income from the selected pools.

Token issuers can pay allocators through Liquidity Payments and Launch Payments. Since sAERO is deployed on Base, holders only need to initiate a transaction on Base to distribute rewards to pools on any of the seven chains, without needing to operate chain by chain.

Aero tweeted that allocators are betting not on the rise or fall of tokens, but on whether a certain market will generate trades. The incentive logic has thus shifted from being based on last week's performance to pre-emptive betting.

Emissions Now Follow Revenue

Aero's economic model article released on October 19 shows that in the four weeks of September 2026, the income flowing to veAERO holders will be $14.9 million (including $6.1 million in transaction fees and $8.9 million in Liquidity and Launch Payments), while AERO paid to LPs according to the fixed emission schedule will be valued at $10.5 million.

However, the issue is that past token emissions were released according to a fixed schedule, with no direct relation to protocol revenue.

Last year's launch event only mentioned that emissions would be adjusted according to protocol revenue, but this time specific parameters were provided. Gauge Caps will bind the reward limits of each pool to their expected revenue, with a long-term goal of achieving an average reward across all exchanges of about 1.2 times the expected revenue, with any AERO exceeding the cap not being minted.

Additionally, rewards will only be minted upon claiming, and LPs who withdraw before the minimum staking period will lose their rewards, which will also not be minted.

According to Aero's calculations, the current annual issuance rate of AERO is about 11% of the supply, and based on the 1.2 times cap and current revenue, it is about 8%, with an annual inflation cap of 20%. Furthermore, the Momentum Fund, which has been integrated from the original buyback plan, has accumulated around 110 million AERO in buybacks or locks.

While making issuance dependent on revenue, adjustments are also being made on the revenue side. The Slipstream concentrated liquidity pool has launched a dynamic fee rate, increasing fees during market volatility and lowering them during calm periods.

Aero backtested nine sets of data from three pools during calm and volatile periods from August to September 2026, and under the premise of the same average fee rate, the income from dynamic fees was higher than that from fixed fees. Another MEV tax will also be gradually introduced, requiring additional fees for trades exceeding the threshold of ordinary retail transactions, with this income distributed to LPs or sAERO holders in the form of transaction fees.

Revenue Concentrated on Base, How Will Aero Break Through?

According to Aero's Dune data page, as of mid-October 2026, the two protocols have accumulated approximately $580 million in revenue, with Aerodrome, which is only deployed on Base, accounting for about $510 million, while Velodrome across multiple chains, including OP Mainnet, totals about $69.8 million, with OP Mainnet alone accounting for $64.8 million.

However, new sources of trading have emerged on Base. Tokenized stocks issued by Coinbase went live on Aerodrome on August 24, and Aero disclosed that its share of EVM tokenized stock trading volume has increased from 2% on September 6 to 34% on October 4.

Despite revenue being concentrated on a single chain, Aero is still attempting to expand its market share through the entry of seven chains. Aero claims that the chains where the original two protocols are located account for about 17% of EVM spot trading volume, and this ratio is expected to triple after all seven chains go live.

To attract liquidity on the new chains, Aero has set the platform's cut for unstaked LPs on Ethereum Mainnet, Arbitrum, and Robinhood Chain to 0%, while it is 5% on the other four chains. The cross-chain exchange feature Metaswaps has also been launched, allowing users to complete exchanges between supported chains within a single application.

In addition to expanding to new chains, the previously supported chains have not completely ceased operations. Pools on Velodrome in Celo, Fraxtal, Soneium, and Unichain are still tradable, but there will be no AERO incentives, and deposits on Lisk must be withdrawn by October 31.

According to Aero's schedule, the first round of Predictive Allocation will take place at 0:00 on October 23, with previously staked sAERO starting to accrue rewards from this round.

This content is provided for general informational purposes only and doesn't constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Any events, rewards, online promotions, or related information mentioned herein should not be considered a recommendation, solicitation, or invitation to purchase, sell, trade, or otherwise deal in any crypto assets. Crypto assets are highly volatile and may result in loss. The availability of WEEX services, products, and related events may vary by region. You are responsible for ensuring that your participation is in accordance with applicable local laws and regulations.