? Aerodrome Finance

How Aerodrome works in 90 seconds

Aerodrome is a ve(3,3) DEX on Base that fuses three pool types under one emissions market. Volatile pools use the constant-product x y = k invariant inherited from Solidly; stable pools use the xy + xy = k Solidly stableswap curve for low-slippage same-priced pairs; and Slipstream pools layer Uniswap V3-style concentrated liquidity on top with selectable fee tiers. AERO emissions are the cross-cutting incentive - every Thursday epoch the protocol mints a fixed-decay schedule of new AERO and routes it to LPs in the pools that veAERO voted on during that epoch.

Voting is the entire game. AERO is locked into a veAERO position for between 1 week and 4 years, with voting power equal to lock_amount (time_remaining / 4 years). veAERO holders allocate their power across listed pools; the protocol streams that week's AERO emissions to the voted pools' LPs, and routes 100% of those pools' swap fees plus any bribes deposited for the epoch back to the veAERO addresses that voted. There is no protocol-fee retention on top, which is the structural reason ve-aligned DEXes can quote materially better LP and voter economics than fee-keeping AMMs at the same volume.

The bribe market closes the loop. Issuers and protocols that need deep liquidity for their token deposit bribe payments - typically $0.50-$1.50 per dollar of AERO emissions they expect to redirect - into the bribe contract for a specific pool ahead of the epoch. veAERO voters compare per-vote bribe-and-fee revenue across pools, vote toward the highest yield, and the resulting emissions push LP capital into those pools, which deepens execution and grows volume, which generates the fees that fund next epoch's distribution. The output is a continuously priced market for liquidity allocation rather than a static governance schedule.

Key concepts

veAERO lock and decay

veAERO is the non-transferable voting position created by locking AERO for 1 week to 4 years. Voting power = lock_amount (time_remaining / 4 years), so a 4-year lock decays linearly to zero. The position is represented as an NFT and can be sold on secondary markets, but the lock cannot be unwound early. veAERO is the only asset that earns swap fees and bribes - plain AERO holders earn nothing.

Stable, volatile, and Slipstream pools

Stable pools use xy + xy = k for tight-priced pairs (USDC/USDT, USDC/DAI, similar stablecoins) and quote much lower slippage than constant-product pools at the same depth. Volatile pools use x y = k. Slipstream is the V3-style layer that lets LPs pick a price range and earn fees only inside it; capital efficiency inside a tight range can reach 100-1000 of an equivalent V2 pool, with proportionally amplified IL and zero earnings outside the range.

Weekly emissions and the Thursday epoch

The protocol mints AERO emissions on a fixed-decay schedule every Thursday epoch. Each epoch's emissions are split across pools in proportion to that epoch's veAERO votes, so a pool that captures 5% of the votes captures 5% of the week's emissions. LP rewards therefore reset weekly and react to vote shifts within one cycle, which is much faster than the multi-week reweighting cycles on Curve gauges.

Bribes and bribe dilution

Bribes are external incentives deposited into a pool's bribe contract before an epoch to attract veAERO votes. When more veAERO crowds onto a pool the per-vote bribe yield falls - bribe dilution - and sophisticated voters rebalance each epoch toward less-crowded pools. The bribe market collectively determines where AERO emissions flow and is the actual point at which protocol budgets price liquidity.

ve(3,3) vs veCRV

Curve's veCRV pays a flat share of all Curve fees regardless of which pools a voter voted for. Aerodrome's veAERO pays only fees and bribes from the pools the voter actually voted for. This change - sometimes summarized as "vote-aligned fees" - is what turns voting into an active yield decision and is the central design difference behind every Solidly-derived DEX from Velodrome and Aerodrome through Equalizer and Thena.

Base L2 gas economics

Aerodrome runs natively on Base, an OP-stack L2 with calldata costs roughly 100-1000 lower than Ethereum L1 depending on transaction shape. That collapses the per-action cost of swaps, deposits, harvests, and weekly veAERO voting into the cents range, which makes ve-style mechanics practical for retail-sized lockers. The same locking flow on a CRV-style L1 would cost so much in gas that small lockers would be net-negative on participation, which is the operational reason Solidly forks live almost entirely on L2s and alt-L1s.

Why Aerodrome matters

As of April 2026, Aerodrome is consistently among the largest DEXes by TVL and volume on Base, and the de facto liquidity layer for the Coinbase L2 ecosystem - Optimism's superchain stables, Coinbase-backed token issuers, and most Base-native projects route through Aerodrome's stable, volatile, or Slipstream pools. The combination of ve(3,3) vote-aligned fees, a transparent bribe market, and L2 gas economics makes it the cleanest live example of the Solidly thesis at scale: voters direct emissions, bribers price that direction, and LPs follow the resulting yield. Volume share, bribe density, and vote prices on Aerodrome are now reference numbers for any protocol budgeting liquidity-mining spend on Base.

Architecturally, Aerodrome also matters because it is the L2-era reference for ve-token DEX design after the original Solidly experiment fizzled on Fantom. Velodrome on Optimism, Thena on BNB, and Equalizer on Fantom run variations of the same playbook, but Aerodrome's combination of volume, bribe market depth, and Base ecosystem alignment is the cleanest case for whether vote-aligned fee distribution actually compounds into durable LP economics. The honest tradeoffs are bribe dilution, the durability of veNFT secondary markets, and Slipstream IL inside tight ranges - all addressable, all visible in the on-chain data, and all worth understanding before committing real capital to the model.

Frequently asked questions

What is veAERO and how is voting power calculated?

veAERO is a non-transferable position you receive when you lock AERO for between 1 week and 4 years. Voting power equals the locked AERO amount (time-remaining / 4 years), so a 4-year lock of 10,000 AERO starts at 10,000 veAERO and decays linearly to 5,000 after 2 years and to 0 at expiry. The lock cannot be unwound early and its NFT representation can be sold on secondary markets, but the voting power and fee claim travel with the NFT, not the original locker.

How are weekly emissions and fees actually distributed?

Each Thursday epoch, veAERO holders allocate their voting power across pools. The protocol then directs that week's AERO emissions pro-rata to the voted pools, and 100% of the swap fees collected by those pools - plus any bribes deposited for the epoch - are streamed back to the veAERO addresses that voted for them. There is no protocol-fee skim on top, which is why ve-aligned DEXes can quote materially better LP economics than fee-keeping designs at the same volume.

What is a bribe and who actually pays them?

A bribe is an external incentive deposited into the bribe contract for a specific pool ahead of an epoch. The protocols paying are typically issuers who need deep liquidity for their token (Optimism, Velo-launched tokens, Coinbase ecosystem stables on Base) and are willing to pay $0.50-$1.50 of bribes per $1 of AERO emissions they expect to redirect. veAERO voters then earn the bribes in addition to swap fees, so vote-direction becomes an explicit market for emissions allocation rather than a passive distribution rule.

How does Slipstream concentrated liquidity differ from V2 stable / volatile pairs?

Aerodrome's V1 contracts inherit Solidly's two pool types - stable pools that use the xy + xy = k invariant for low-slippage stableswap, and volatile pools that use x y = k. Slipstream is the V3-style concentrated-liquidity layer on top: LPs pick a price range and receive tightly-tuned exposure inside that band, with capital efficiency multipliers that can reach 100-1000 of the equivalent V2 pool. The tradeoff is the same as Uniswap V3 - wider IL inside the range and zero earnings outside it.

What does ve(3,3) actually mean and how is it different from veCRV?

(3,3) is the Solidly tag for the game-theoretic equilibrium where every actor - LPs, voters, bribers - gains by participating rather than defecting. The Aerodrome version pays voters 100% of fees and bribes from the pools they voted for, which is the key change from veCRV. veCRV holders get a flat slice of all Curve fees regardless of which pools they voted for; veAERO holders only get fees from the pools they actually directed emissions to. That alignment is what turns vote choice into an active yield decision instead of a passive governance vote.

Why is Aerodrome on Base specifically and not Ethereum?

Aerodrome was launched directly on Base as Coinbase's ecosystem DEX, with seed liquidity, governance support, and treasury alignment from the early Base team. Operating on an L2 instead of Ethereum L1 collapses gas cost on swap, deposit, and harvest by roughly 100-1000 depending on calldata, which materially lowers the harvest break-even for LPs and makes weekly veAERO voting practical for retail-sized lockers. As of April 2026, Aerodrome consistently sits among the largest DEXes by both TVL and volume on Base.

What is bribe dilution and how do voters protect against it?

Bribe dilution is the per-vote drop in bribe-and-fee revenue when more veAERO crowds onto an attractive pool. If 1,000 veAERO are voting on a pool with $10,000 of bribes, each vote earns $10; if 10,000 veAERO crowd in, each vote earns $1. Sophisticated voters track per-vote yield across pools each epoch and rebalance toward less-crowded pools - a process that is essentially identical to liquidity provider rebalancing, just expressed in vote weight rather than capital.

Related reading

• veAERO tokenomics - step through the lock formula, decay schedule, and why vote-aligned fee distribution changes LP behavior.
• Slipstream concentrated liquidity - see how V3-style ranges interact with the ve(3,3) emissions schedule on Base.
• Bribes and vote incentive markets - work through bribe pricing, dilution, and the per-vote yield rebalance that shapes weekly emissions.
• Curve and veCRV - compare Solidly's vote-aligned fees against the original ve-model that pays a flat share regardless of vote choice.
• Yield farming primitives - for the underlying LP, IL, and auto-compounding math that veAERO voters layer their decisions on top of.