Aerodrome and Velodrome Become Aero on Oct. 21, and Holders Must Migrate Themselves

Aerodrome and Velodrome are merging into one exchange called Aero, and the switch flips on October 21 at 8 p.m. ET. Here is the part most holders miss: nothing migrates for you.

What actually changes

Both legacy platforms stop emitting rewards at launch, and every existing AERO converts one-for-one into the new AERO. VELO holders get roughly 0.044 new AERO per token, with the ratio based on supply at launch rather than fixed in advance. The split follows revenue: the Aerodrome side takes about 94.5% of the new supply, the Velodrome side about 5.5%.

Existing locks keep their remaining duration instead of being reset. Emissions heading into the launch are held steady at roughly 10.92% per year.

The deadlines that bite

Self-custody holders have to move their own tokens, and unclaimed rewards cannot be recovered after migration. xVELO holders faced an October 15 deadline to bridge back to OP Mainnet, while Lisk assets must be withdrawn by October 31.

Aero launches across Base, Ethereum, OP, Arc, Ink, Robinhood Chain and Arbitrum. Celo, Fraxtal, Soneium and Unichain keep trading and liquidity provision, but lose gauges, voting and token issuance.

Why this matters

This is consolidation, not expansion. Two exchanges holding roughly $422 million in combined deposits are folding into a single liquidity layer for Ethereum, running on Dromos Labs' MetaDEX03.

For liquidity providers and veAERO voters, the real shift is governance. One token now coordinates value and liquidity across every chain, and the weekly vote becomes a cross-chain decision. Exchanges are expected to handle the swap for users who hold there, each on its own timeline. If you self-custody, treat October 21 as a hard date, not a background update.