Aerodrome Review

How Aerodrome scores in decentralized exchanges

This entry rates Aerodrome Finance, the vote-escrow DEX on Base, in our decentralized exchange ranking. One fact frames everything below: on October 22, 2026 Aerodrome and Velodrome upgraded into a new exchange called Aero. According to Aero's upgrade hub, Aerodrome's AERO emissions stopped at launch, all its gauges were deactivated, and its pools stay live without emissions while the legacy front end remains up for the upgrade and may close later. This rating covers the Aerodrome contracts and documentation as they stand, not Aero, which has not been rated.

The basis is desk research of Aerodrome's GitHub documentation, contract source and licence, plus Aero's upgrade hub, checked on November 1, 2026. No swap was made. The category uses five criteria, each marked 0 to 10 and weighted equally, as set out in our ratings methodology.

The overall score is the plain average: (6 + 5 + 7 + 4 + 7) ÷ 5 = 29 ÷ 5 = 5.8. On the scores currently recorded for the other eight protocols, that places Aerodrome seventh, behind Orca at 6.2, and level with Jupiter and SushiSwap at 5.8 but listed first under the alphabetical tie rule.

Two marks changed on this pass. Fee transparency rose from 5 to 6 because the pool factory contract states default fees alongside the 3% cap, which the earlier review had not recorded. Audit disclosure rose from 6 to 7 after the about page was found to name Spearbit and ChainSecurity for the core contracts. The other three marks were rechecked and stand. The overall score moves from 5.4 to 5.8.

Strongest criteria: upgrade candour and audits

Immutability & governance (7)

The contracts specification says the protocol is immutable and, in the next sentence, that the factories are all upgradable so new versions can be released and users can choose whether to migrate. The security documentation lists what the Emergency Council can do: kill or revive a gauge, set a custom pool name or symbol, and activate or deactivate managed veNFTs. Naming the exception and the holder of the power is what this criterion rewards. The mark stays below Uniswap's 10 because the pool factory also contains a pauser role that the documentation does not discuss.

Audit disclosure (7)

The about page says the contracts were audited by Spearbit and ChainSecurity. The security page links MixBytes' public report on the Pool Launcher, dated September 12 to October 3, 2025, and says the inherited Velodrome V2 architecture has been audited, pointing readers to Velodrome's security page. Three named firms and one linked, dated report put Aerodrome above protocols with no audit page. It sits below the 10s for Curve and PancakeSwap because the core-contract reports are not linked from Aerodrome's own documentation.

Weakest criteria: chains, licence and fees

Chain coverage (4): one network

Aerodrome is deployed on Base. The earlier review also listed Optimism, but the Optimism exchange in this family is Velodrome, a separate product, so it is not counted here. The mark is unchanged and matches the single-network marks for Raydium and Orca. Aero launched on seven networks, but that belongs to a different, unrated product.

Licence & code openness (5): delayed-open

The LICENSE file is Business Source License 1.1, with Perpetual Cyclist Services LLC as licensor and Velodrome Smart Contracts as the licensed work. It converts to GPL-2.0-or-later, but the change date is not written in the file; it points to an ENS record. BUSL is a source-available licence, not an open-source one, so it scores mid-table, level with Uniswap.

Fee transparency (6): defaults, not a schedule

In the pool factory, new basic pools start at 0.05% for stable pools and 0.30% for volatile pools. A fee manager may change those defaults or set a custom fee on any pool up to the 3% cap, and the documentation says concentrated-liquidity fees can be adjusted for volatility. On a $1,000 swap through a volatile pool at the default, the fee is $3.00 before gas. Because any pool can depart from the default, a trader still has to read the rate in the swap preview. The rubric places that with 1inch's 6 for bounded fees, below the fixed tiers that score 9 or 10.

What the score does not cover

The rubric reads published disclosures. It does not measure liquidity depth, price execution, or how pools behave now that emissions have stopped. It does not grade the Aero upgrade, its conversion terms or its contracts. The hub says the upgrade cannot be reversed. Upgrades of this kind are a common phishing pretext; our guide to avoiding wallet scams and phishing covers what to check before signing an approval.

Aerodrome vs Raydium and SushiSwap

Aerodrome leads SushiSwap on upgrade disclosure and audits, and SushiSwap stays ahead on licence and chain count. Raydium is ahead of Aerodrome on every criterion except chain coverage, most clearly on its published fee tiers, Apache licence and audits.

Who this rating suits

The score is most useful to readers who still hold liquidity or locked AERO on Aerodrome and want to know what its documents disclose while they decide on the upgrade. It is not a recommendation to open new positions on a product whose emissions have stopped and whose front end may close. A rating of Aero itself would need its own sources and has not been done.