Rank 6 · DeFi / Base DEX
Aerodrome AERO
MC ~$474M
Price ~$0.48
Annualized fees ~$150M
Revenue ~$112M
Fee accrual 100% to veAERO
Composite60.9 #3 of 25
Buyback yield24.6% $111.1M/yr
P/S4.1× sector 10.0×
Below 1y peak66% 2.9× to reclaim
Float50% FDV $903.0M
Fwd P/S y35.6× base case
Moat70 judgement
Innovation40 judgement
Moat 70. The default liquidity layer on Base with veAERO lockups creating real switching friction, plus Coinbase ecosystem alignment. Discounted because ve(3,3) itself is forkable - the moat is the liquidity, not the design.
Innovation 40. A refinement of the ve(3,3) design inherited from Curve and Velodrome. Best economics in the watchlist and the least original design in it - execution, not invention.
Innovation 40. A refinement of the ve(3,3) design inherited from Curve and Velodrome. Best economics in the watchlist and the least original design in it - execution, not invention.
Measured from live data, except Moat and Innovation which are hand-set judgements · snapshot 2026-08-23 · full model →
What it does
Aerodrome is the dominant DEX on Base, with 65%+ market share of Base swap volume. It combines a ve(3,3) emissions model with concentrated liquidity via Slipstream, and now with MEV internalization as a new revenue line.
Fundamentals
- 65%+ Base DEX market share; $185B+ cumulative volume.
- TVL $268M; throughput enormous relative to TVL — high capital efficiency.
- Trailing-year annualized ~$150M fees / ~$112M revenue.
- $450M lifetime distributed to veAERO lockers.
- Slipstream (concentrated liquidity) is now the majority of volume.
Tokenomics
- 100% of protocol fees are distributed to veAERO lockers. Cleanest fee-accrual model in DeFi.
- ve(3,3) emissions still dilutive but decaying 1%/epoch.
- At ~4× sales for a category leader, materially cheaper than any comparable DEX.
Catalysts (6–12mo)
- Velodrome merger closed July 2026 (0.55:1 VELO→AERO); unified cross-chain DEX push.
- Aero/MetaDEX03 unified cross-chain rollout in Q3.
- MEV internalization opens a new revenue line.
Risks
- ve(3,3) emissions still dilutive (decaying).
- Base narrative dependency — beta on Coinbase's L2 traction.
- Uniswap v4 hooks competition on Base could take share.
Strong Buy. Best real-yield DEX token by direct fee accrual with a category-defining moat and the cleanest cashflow-to-token linkage in DeFi.
How it compares to its peers
| Spot DEX / AMM | Mkt cap | Revenue/yr | Growth/yr | Bull y3 rev | P/S | Fwd P/S y3 | Buyback |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uniswappeer | $2.6B | $67.7M | -1% | $78.8M | 38.6× | 39.2× | 2.0% |
| Jupiter | $669.3M | $92.4M | -2% | $420.1M | 7.2× | 7.6× | 6.9% |
| PancakeSwappeer | $544.4M | $82.0M | -16% | $56.6M | 6.6× | 9.3× | 9.5% |
| Curvepeer | $497.6M | $30.8M | -47% | $9.6M | 16.1× | 51.2× | 6.1% |
| Aerodrome | $451.2M | $111.1M | -15% | $262.9M | 4.1× | 5.6× | 24.6% |
| Raydiumpeer | $202.1M | $20.3M | -36% | $28.0M | 10.0× | 22.9× | 8.2% |
| Osmosis | $28.3M | $1.6M | — | — | 17.8× | — | — |
Sector median P/S is 10.0×. Aerodrome trades at 4.1× — below the median, worth 146% if it re-rated to it. Peer revenue growth runs at a median of -16% a year, with 6 of 6 shrinking — so this multiple sits inside a contracting sector.