Base and OP head DEX will merge, expanding deployment to Arc and Ethereum.

Written by: Sanqing, Foresight News

TL;DR

On November 12, Dromos announced at the New Horizon launch event the integration of Aerodrome and Velodrome into a unified entry point called Aero. It forms a hub for cross-chain shared liquidity in a multi-chain environment.

The new plan covers Base, Optimism, the Ethereum mainnet, and the institutional chain Arc. Dromos positions Aero as the central scheduling layer for unified governance, unified incentives, and unified routing.

AERO and VELO will merge into a single token, with the original community shares mapped according to existing weights, and the new token corresponding to the future income of the entire cross-chain system.

MetaDEX 03 serves as a core upgrade, coordinating emissions with real income through a dual-engine system, and incorporates endogenous MEV auctions, dynamic fees, and cross-chain routing to form a reusable multi-chain liquidity operating system.

Dromos plans to launch Aero in sync with Arc on the Ethereum mainnet in the second quarter of 2026.

On November 12, Dromos held the New Horizon launch conference. Just the day before, founder Alexander shared Uniswap's UNIfication proposal (activating fee mechanisms, retroactively burning tokens… Will the new proposal help Uniswap make a comeback?). He stated that competitors made significant mistakes at a crucial moment and steered the discussion towards the launch conference. During the conference, Dromos introduced two core elements: first, the integration of Aerodrome and Velodrome into a unified liquidity entry point called Aero, which will serve as a central hub for future expansions to more Ethereum-based chains; second, the launch of the new MetaDEX 03 suite, designed to upgrade the protocol layer revenue structure, LP incentive mechanisms, and inter-chain liquidity scheduling. The focus of the entire launch was to consolidate the originally fragmented DEX system into a scalable liquidity operating network.

Dromos's existing dual deployment foundation on Base/Optimism

Before entering the new AERO, Dromos summarized the operational foundation of the past two years on Base and Optimism. Aerodrome and Velodrome adopt a completely consistent mechanism: the same MetaDEX core, the same ve model, the same gauge weight system, and the same bribe market. They are two deployments of the same system on two chains, with almost no difference in operational logic.

From an on-chain performance perspective, Aerodrome is fully focused on Base and has established a long-term stable advantageous position on that chain. According to data from DeFiLlama as of the date of writing, its TVL is approximately $467 million, with annual fee income exceeding $170 million and a 30-day trading volume reaching $18.6 billion. Among DEXs on Base, Aerodrome consistently occupies a core position. In contrast, Velodrome's deployment center remains on OP Mainnet, but with the expansion of the OP Stack ecosystem, it has extended to emerging chains such as Ink, Soneium, and Unichain. The current total TVL across all chains is approximately $57.79 million, with OP Mainnet accounting for nearly two-thirds. Its 30-day trading volume is about $1.386 billion, maintaining long-term activity within the DEX system on OP Mainnet. Both occupy leading positions in terms of trading volume ratio within their respective ecosystems, with differences possibly stemming from the scale of the chain itself, user structure, and ecosystem maturity.

The core structure of both is a continuous operating incentive loop. The underlying AMM and routing are handled by MetaDEX, while the ve model binds LP rewards, incentive weights, and long-term locking together. If a token issuer wishes to enhance the liquidity of their pool, they will actively provide an incentive budget in the bribe market to attract ve votes. ve holders allocate votes based on bribe earnings, and the voting results determine the gauge weight of the pool. The higher the weight, the more AERO/VELO emissions the pool receives each week. As emissions increase, the pool's APR rises, prompting LPs to migrate and provide liquidity, forming a closed loop of “project parties providing incentives, ve distributing incentives, and LPs following returns.”

Dromos summarizes the common pain points faced by the industry as the “DEX trilemma”: traders require deep liquidity and stable execution, LPs need controllable risk returns, and protocols require a sustainable incentive structure. Over the past two years, Aerodrome and Velodrome have reliably validated this playbook on two chains using the same set of mechanisms—by capturing core liquidity, coordinating incentives through ve+bribe, and continuously expanding the ecological portfolio, transforming DEX from a single-product offering into on-chain infrastructure. Internal data also shows that stable ranges can be maintained solely through fee income, with TVL utilization efficiency ranking among the top in the industry, and most value flowing back to stakers and LPs through veAERO/veVELO, aligning incentives with long-term value.

It is on this basis of accumulation that Dromos positions the new Aero as a unified representation of the entire DEX productivity, rather than a single token of a DEX on a specific chain.

Why upgrade to Aero: Cross-chain liquidity needs a unified scheduling layer

After reviewing the existing deployment, the press conference shifted the focus back to Aero. This upgrade is not simply a merger of the two DEX brands, but aims to address the structural issues that have arisen in the Ethereum ecosystem following multi-chain parallelism.

The Ethereum ecosystem has evolved from the early “L1 + a few scaling chains” to a network composed of L1, multiple L2s, application chains, and institutional chains. For users, different chains mean different interfaces and different fee rates; for project parties and LPs, the same asset needs to have pools and incentive designs repeated across multiple chains, with liquidity fragmented across several isolated environments.

Dromos pointed out in the live broadcast that if the practice of “one independent DEX for each chain” continues, it will only replicate the old model and will be unable to address the fragmentation of cross-chain liquidity. Therefore, Aero's core goal is to establish a unified liquidity scheduling logic across multiple chains, including unified routing, unified incentive distribution, unified governance structures, and a cross-chain shared economic model.

The conference also mentioned another important variable, which is Arc, launched by the USDC issuing company Circle. Arc is a brand new L1 aimed at institutions, using stablecoins as gas, with a focus on settlement and tokenized assets. Arc will provide a complete set of compliance and certification interfaces (including address verification, risk levels, KYC/KYB proof, source of funds proof, etc.), which external protocols can call upon as needed. Dromos emphasized that Aero will have the capability to access these interfaces, enabling it to adapt to both DeFi ecosystems and institutional scenarios.

One side is public L2s like Base and Optimism, while the other side is institutional chains like Arc. Between these two ends, Dromos positions Aero as a “central liquidity hub”: unifying network-level liquidity and routing on the upper layer, and deploying transactions and incentives with the same logic on different chains on the lower layer, while also ensuring compatibility with the certification system of institutional chains.

Structure of Aero: Protocol integration, token consolidation, and deployment roadmap

After establishing the role positioning, the press conference presented Aero's structural plan, which involves protocol layer integration, token layer consolidation, and future deployment rhythm.

At the protocol level, Dromos indicates that it will converge Aerodrome on Base with Velodrome on OP Stack into a unified framework. Front-end interactions will gradually be unified under Aero, while the underlying layer will fully switch to MetaDEX 03, which is used for handling transactions, routing, liquidity, and settlement. During the transition period, both sites will continue to operate, but governance, incentive distribution, and cross-chain routing logic will be migrated to Aero's unified rules in phases.

At the token level, Dromos has explicitly announced the merger of AERO and VELO into a single AERO token, with no additional issuance, and the total supply fully mapped from the existing community. The allocation ratio is calculated based on the current TVL and revenue weight of the two protocols, with the on-site data showing Aerodrome at approximately 94.5% and Velodrome at approximately 5.5%. The new AERO is no longer bound to a single-chain protocol, but corresponds to the future output and cash flow of the entire Aero. The ve model is retained, allowing users to lock the new AERO as veAERO, participate in voting and incentive distribution, and share in protocol revenue. The live broadcast described this as a “single economic system merge,” emphasizing the unity of mechanisms and economic structures.

In terms of deployment rhythm, Dromos divides the work into several stages. The short-term task is to gradually enable the core capabilities of the Aero brand and MetaDEX 03 on Base and Optimism, ensuring a smooth transition for existing users and project parties. In the second quarter of 2026, Aero will be deployed to the Ethereum mainnet, placing core trading pairs and institution-sensitive assets in the mainnet pool. At the same time, the deployment of the Arc network will be carried out, enabling verified pools with rules such as address authentication and whitelisting. Aero will call on-demand identity and compliance modules provided by Arc to support institutional scenarios while maintaining open characteristics on other chains.

In the second half of the press conference, several protocols that have integrated MetaDEX 02 took the stage, including lending protocols, derivatives protocols, and cross-chain infrastructure. These teams believe that Aero is crucial for establishing a unified and predictable underlying liquidity for them. MetaDEX provides stable routing and depth for external protocols, making liquidation, position closing, or cross-chain execution more controllable; the unified incentive layer reduces the costs associated with redundant pool creation and voting, allowing assets deployed across chains to maintain a consistent incentive structure. For these protocols, Aero centralizes governance, incentives, and routing into a cross-chain coordination layer, enabling them to achieve more stable sources of liquidity without changing their product structure, which is also the reason they chose to adapt early.

MetaDEX 03: From AMM to “Liquidity Operating System”

In 2017, Bancor first implemented constant function market making, and in 2018, Uniswap became the default exchange layer for DeFi with its minimal model and low integration costs. Sushi introduced liquidity mining, and Curve optimized its curve for stablecoins and long-tail assets, but AMMs have always struggled to simultaneously meet the three parties' needs in their economic structure. Trading users require depth and stable execution, LPs need controllable risk and returns, and protocols need sustainable positive net income. Most DEXs can only make trade-offs among the three.

MetaDEX 1 has completed the basic AMM and routing definitions, allowing Velodrome to stably absorb mainstream liquidity on Optimism. Building on this, MetaDEX 2 introduces the ve model, gauge weights, and bribe markets, combining LP incentives and project budgets through Aerodrome and Velodrome to create a sustainable economic cycle in a single-chain environment. With this upgrade, Dromos positions MetaDEX 03 as a cross-chain reusable “liquidity OS”, which is not just an AMM on a specific chain, but a unified market-making, routing, and incentive scheme.

The economic structure of MetaDEX 03 is composed of the AER engine and the REV engine. The former is responsible for incentive emissions, determining the emission amount for each cycle and distributing incentives to various pools based on ve voting; the latter is responsible for the collection and distribution of protocol revenue, including transaction fees, Slipstream MEV, and batch matching profits, among others. The two are coordinated by the protocol's internal “automatic stabilizer,” which automatically adjusts the emission pace based on the protocol's actual revenue, aiming to keep the growth of token supply in line with the growth of protocol revenue as much as possible. Data from the live stream over a week indicates that MetaDEX currently maintains a positive balance of over one million dollars after deducting LP incentives and bribes. According to the model simulation of MetaDEX 03, this balance can be increased by approximately 2.8 times without raising inflation. The overall goal is to ensure that LPs receive a comprehensive return that exceeds the transaction fees they contribute, while allowing the protocol to maintain a positive net income in each cycle.

The core upgrade of the technical layer comes from Slipstream V3. Currently, most MEV is captured by third-party auctions on the sorting layer, and DEX and LP cannot participate in profit distribution. Slipstream V3 integrates an endogenous MEV auction and batch matching mechanism within the AMM, retaining some arbitrage and matching profits within the protocol, which are then distributed according to rules to LPs, veAERO holders, and the protocol treasury, while striving to not increase or even lower user-side costs. Accompanying this is a more detailed dynamic fee structure, which automatically reduces fees for pools with high depth and low volatility, and increases fees for high-risk pools in extreme market conditions to cover risks with higher income. When combined with gauge cap and dynamic fee mechanisms, MetaDEX 03 significantly enhances its ability to adjust capital efficiency.

Regarding trading paths and operational tools, MetaDEX 03 also integrates MetaSwaps, Autopilot, solver markets, and verified pools. MetaSwaps is a unified cross-chain swap interface for users. Users simply need to select the asset and target chain, and the backend will automatically route orders between Base, Optimism, the Ethereum mainnet, and Arc to find the path with the lowest overall cost. It does not recreate cross-chain bridges but collaborates with multi-chain messaging infrastructures like Hyperlane. Autopilot is aimed at LPs and project parties, supporting one-click establishment of complex positions, automatic reinvestment, automatic management of bribe budgets, and cross-chain incentive structures. The solver market is targeted at professional market makers and MEV participants, with Aero providing a unified interface and settlement rules, allowing these participants to access their own algorithms for batch matching and MEV auctions, transforming external computing power into internal protocol services.

The institutional section is undertaken by verified pools. Aero can enable pools with KYC and whitelist rules in environments like Arc, and call upon compliance modules provided by Arc as needed, allowing institutions to participate in market making and trading while meeting regulatory requirements. MetaDEX 03 also reserves the capability for integration with external identity systems, such as Coinbase and World ID, to add an additional layer of security for large or sensitive funds, and provide more advanced analytical tools.

In Dromos's vision, regulation is leaning towards stablecoins and tokenized assets. Aero aims to achieve a scalable unified core for both open liquidity and institutional liquidity through MetaDEX 03, without sacrificing the inherent openness of DeFi.