Aerodrome
Aerodrome is the largest decentralized exchange on Base, Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network. Built by the team behind Velodrome, it launched in August 2023 as the central trading and liquidity hub for Base. Like other automated market makers it lets anyone swap tokens and provide liquidity directly from their own wallet, and it uses a ve(3,3) design in which users lock its AERO token for veAERO to direct liquidity incentives and earn a share of fees. Its on-chain contracts have not been drained, but in November 2025 attackers hijacked its web domain to serve a phishing site, a user-facing risk common to every DEX.
- Launched
- August 2023 by the team behind Velodrome, built for the Base network2023-08 · source
- Model
- Non-custodial ve(3,3) automated market maker; you trade and provide liquidity from your own wallet
- Network
- Base (Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2)
- Token
- AERO; locked for veAERO to vote on liquidity incentives and earn fees
What is Aerodrome?
Aerodrome is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker built specifically for Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network incubated by Coinbase. It launched in August 2023, built by the team behind Velodrome (a similar DEX on Optimism), and was designed from the outset to be Base's central trading and liquidity marketplace. It is non-custodial and permissionless: liquidity providers deposit tokens into pools, traders swap against those pools from their own wallets, and no company holds the funds.
Its defining feature is the ve(3,3) model. Users lock the AERO token — for up to four years — to receive veAERO, which grants voting power over how AERO emissions (liquidity incentives) are distributed across pools, plus a claim on trading fees and bribes from the pools they vote for. This is meant to align long-term participants with the protocol's growth and steer liquidity to where it is most useful.
Is Aerodrome safe (Base DEX)?
Aerodrome is non-custodial, so no company vault holds your funds, and its on-chain smart contracts have not been exploited to drain the protocol since launch — a solid record for the busiest DEX on Base. Because it is permissionless, the standard DEX caveats apply: anyone can list a token, so scam and "honeypot" tokens sit alongside legitimate ones, and checking what you are trading is on you.
The clearest safety event to date was user-facing rather than a contract flaw. In November 2025 attackers hijacked the DNS for Aerodrome's web domains (its .finance and .box front-ends), redirecting visitors to a lookalike phishing site that requested malicious wallet signatures and drained funds — reportedly over $1 million within about an hour — from users who signed. The team confirmed the on-chain contracts were untouched; the attack targeted the website, and users were steered to secure decentralized mirrors while the domain was recovered. This is the same class of threat that has hit other DEX front-ends: the protocol was not drained, but people who signed malicious approvals on the fake site lost funds. Confirm you are on the official interface, be wary of unexpected signature requests, and read every approval before signing.
Incident record
No security incident on record as of 2026-09-28 — we checked and found none, which is not the same as never having one.
In our ratings
Where we score Aerodrome against its peers on open data. The number lives there, not here.
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Frequently asked
Is Aerodrome safe?+
Aerodrome is non-custodial and its on-chain contracts have not been exploited to drain the protocol. The main risk is user-facing: in November 2025 attackers hijacked its web domain to serve a phishing site that drained funds from users who signed malicious approvals, though the contracts themselves were untouched. As with any DEX, permissionless listing also means scam tokens exist. Confirm the official interface and read what you sign.
What is Aerodrome?+
Aerodrome is the largest decentralized exchange on Base, Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2. Launched in August 2023 by the team behind Velodrome, it is a non-custodial ve(3,3) automated market maker: you swap and provide liquidity from your own wallet, and locking its AERO token for veAERO lets you direct liquidity incentives and earn fees.
Was Aerodrome hacked?+
Its on-chain smart contracts have not been drained. In November 2025 attackers hijacked the DNS for its web domains and served a phishing front-end that took funds from users who signed malicious approvals — reportedly over $1 million — but the protocol's contracts were untouched and the team moved users to secure mirrors while recovering the domain.
What is the AERO token and ve(3,3)?+
AERO is Aerodrome's token. In its ve(3,3) design you lock AERO for up to four years to receive veAERO, which grants voting power over how liquidity incentives are distributed across pools and a share of the resulting trading fees. It is meant to align long-term holders with the protocol's growth.
What changed
- 2026-09-28Profile created: Aerodrome the ve(3,3) DEX and liquidity hub on Base, its AERO/veAERO model, and the November 2025 DNS-hijack phishing event documented in the safety section (contracts not drained), with no protocol-level incident on record.