Aerodrome Finance (AERO)
Unlock Schedule
Aerodrome Finance (AERO) Token Unlock & Vesting Schedule
The unlock chart above provides a clear visual overview of the Aerodrome Finance (AERO) token release schedule, showing when and how tokens enter circulation across investor, team, treasury, and community allocations. Understanding these tokenomics dynamics is critical for evaluating potential supply pressure, inflation impact, and market liquidity over time — key factors that can influence AERO price performance.
Each color segment in the chart corresponds to a specific allocation group described in the Allocations section below. Underlying assumptions and data models used to reconstruct this schedule are explained in detail under Assumptions, while broader utility insights and token use cases are covered in Tokenomics & Utility.
Tokenomics & Utility
Two tokens by design
- AERO: ERC‑20 utility token paid out as emissions to staked LPs.
- veAERO: an ERC‑721 NFT you get by locking AERO; it grants voting power over emissions and entitlement to fee distributions from the pools you vote for. Lock up to four years. Longer locks equal more veAERO voting power. An “Auto‑Max Lock” option fixes a position at the maximum lock so its voting power doesn’t decay. (app.aerodrcme.finance)
Initial distribution and supply schedule
Aerodrome set an initial AERO supply of 500 million, with 450 million distributed as veAERO at genesis. Early allocations included a 40% airdrop to veVELO lockers; public‑goods and foundation tranches were auto‑max‑locked to seed long‑term governance, and small portions were set aside for voter incentives and genesis liquidity. Weekly emissions started at 10 million AERO and followed a three‑phase schedule: a “Take‑off” period with +3% weekly increases for 14 epochs, a “Cruise” phase with 1% weekly decay thereafter, and finally “Aero Fed,” where veAERO voters can nudge emissions slightly up, down, or keep them steady once emissions drop below a threshold. Aerodrome also includes an anti‑dilution rebase that grants additional veAERO to lockers, offsetting dilution when lock rates are low. (app.aerodrcme.finance)
What AERO and veAERO do
- Liquidity incentives: AERO rewards flow to pools that veAERO voters select, creating a market‑driven routing of emissions.
- Governance: veAERO votes determine monetary policy in the Aero Fed phase and control which pools earn new emissions.
- Fee sharing: veAERO voters receive 100% of trading fees from the pools they support during each epoch. (app.aerodrcme.finance)
In short, Aerodrome Finance tokenomics are built to line up long‑term lockers, active LPs, and partner protocols in a self‑reinforcing flywheel—often summarized as “emissions → votes → liquidity → volume → fees → voter rewards.” (0xgreythorn.medium.com)
Assumptions
- AERO supply is uncapped; total_supply set to null.
Docs specify ongoing weekly emissions with governance control (AERO Fed) and no fixed max cap.
- LP and Team emissions split is 95%/5% of weekly emissions.
Official docs state '5% of the emissions will be going to the team address'; interpreted as a share of minted emissions each epoch.
- Take-off (14 epochs) modeled from 2023-08-31 with +3% weekly starting at 10M AERO.
Matches official emission phase definition; tokens computed via geometric series and apportioned 95% to LPs and 5% to team.
- Cruise (post-epoch 14 to 2024-12-03) modeled as −1% weekly decay in emissions.
Matches docs; totals computed by geometric series beginning one week after Take-off peak.
- AERO Fed phase (from 2024-12-04) modeled at 0.67% of total supply per week, maintained constant as a percentage through 2025-12-31.
Docs indicate Fed starts at 0.67%/week and may change by ±0.01% weekly via votes; absent a canonical historical vote record, we use the docs’ own 'constant' projection assumption for a 56‑week window.
- Voter Incentives (40M AERO) distributed linearly over first 12 months after launch.
Launch post indicates 50M liquid AERO at TGE for incentives and initial liquidity, with discretionary distribution; linear schedule chosen to convert event‑driven usage into monthly unlocks.
- Genesis Liquidity Incentives (10M AERO) fully utilized during first epoch.
Launch plan states 'up to 10M' used as pro‑rata matching in Epoch 0; modeled as fully used to reflect maximum planned distribution to kickstart liquidity.
Allocations
Description
#129
Aerodrome Finance is a next-generation Automated Market Maker designed to serve as the central liquidity hub for Base, a Layer 2 blockchain. It aims to combine a powerful liquidity incentive engine with a vote-lock governance model and a user-friendly experience.
| Sector: | DEX |
| Blockchain: | Base |