Aerodrome Finance
Aerodrome Finance is a further development of the Velodrome AMM model; it is an AMM endowed additionally with a liquidity incentive program and a governance model.
Mechanism map
- Vote-escrow (Velodrome version)
- Volume-Driven Buybacks
Token functions
Yield-Incentivized Governance
The primary function of the AERO token is yield-incentivized governance:
- The governance rights are only activated after the AERO -> veAERO lock-up.
- Locked veAERO position enables participation in governance decisions regarding emission distribution and other matters.
- Active participation in governance is rewarded with protocol fees
This means that token holders can obtain protocol fees under two conditions: (1) locking AERO in veAERO and (2) participating in voting using the veAERO position.
Please note, that veAERO holders receive all trading fees generated by LPs. In turn, LPs receive newly minted AERO tokens according to governance decisions.
Value drivers
Transferability Restriction
represents the necessity to lock AERO in vote-escrow contract in order to activate its utility
Represents AERO lock-up for a period of up to 4 years, with a natively enabled permalock feature (in the sense of the ability to automatically extend the lock indefinitely). Voting power is linearly proportional to remaining lock time.
Note, that locking transforms ERC20 AERO tokens into an ERC721 NFT representing a user's locked position.
[7] = ƒ(lock_time, price_at_lock, locked_quantity)
Conditional Action
Represents participation in protocol governance (voting) to acquire governance value (bribes) and receive additional incentive (protocol fees)
Represents participation in protocol governance (voting) to acquire governance value (bribes) and receive additional incentive (protocol fees)
Value capture investment profile

Base deployment addresses are available here).
1. THE VOTE-ESCROWED GOVERNANCE (VELODROME IMPLEMENTATION)
The AERO inherit VELO codebase. The token's value capture implementation follows a structured flow where users interact with multiple protocol components.
- The process begins when a user locks their AERO tokens to receive veAERO through the voting-escrow contract (in addition to position management and delegation functions), with the ability to redeem these tokens upon lock expiry. Users can then participate in protocol governance by voting through the Voter contract, which interfaces with both gauge and reward systems. These gauges are created by interaction with the corresponding function of the Voter, and the VotingRewardsFactory creates the reward pools for the gauge (one for fees, the other for bribes).
- These pools receive fees from gauges and additional incentives from gauge owners. Once the epoch concludes, rewards become claimable via Voter functions ; where the Minter contract notifies reward amounts and mints new AERO tokens as needed, while the RewardsDistributor handles the distribution of rebase rewards to veAERO holders. This creates a comprehensive system that handles both active participation rewards (voting/gauge rewards) and passive benefits (rebases).
- As can be observed, mints go to rebases (and LPs of pools based on the voting results), and all fees are distributed to veAERO holders based on their vote allocations. It means that for which pools veAERO position voted, from those pools fees are received.