AERO recently increased by over 8%, and the driving factors behind this are not just market sentiment but more substantial progress at the protocol level.

First, the optimization of token economics. A new round of veAERO locking plan has been launched, with a scale of 3409.63 tokens and a discount rate increased to 5.5%. Starting from Q2 2024, Aerodrome has been locking in long-term holders through a fixed locking scheme, and this continuous sales strategy has strengthened market expectations of token deflation.

Second, cross-chain expansion is accelerating. Aerodrome plans to launch on the Ethereum mainnet in Q2 2026, where it will deploy the MetaDEX03 AER and REV engines. This means the protocol will jump from the Base chain to re-capture liquidity in the Ethereum ecosystem, a move that could significantly change its position in DeFi.

The native ecosystem on the Base chain is also heating up. Recently, the AERO/tAERO liquidity pool's APY reached 13.10%, with genuine users actively contributing 474.33 AERO, indicating that the ecosystem has attracted real capital inflows, not just maintained by incentives.

More importantly, users have already completed the full on-chain operation process: bridging in USDC → exchanging for AERO → staking for profits → opening perpetual contracts. This end-to-end automation capability shows that the protocol's maturity is enough to attract professional traders to build complex strategies.

With technical preparations and active capital, this surge does not seem hollow.