Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terms used across Aero.
A
AER Engine: One of Aero's two economic engines. It calibrates the rate at which AERO Rewards are issued to match market conditions, and reduces rewards to pools that are no longer productive.
Active range: The price range in which a concentrated-liquidity deposit is currently earning. The deposit stops earning if the price moves outside it.
Aero: The protocol launching in 2026: the merger of Aerodrome and Velodrome into a single product with an upgraded token and a unified economy. Aero is the unified liquidity layer for all of Ethereum.
AERO: Aero's ERC-20 token. Stake AERO to receive sAERO.
AERO-earning liquidity: A liquidity deposit set to earn AERO Rewards; its trading fees flow to Token Operators as Exchange Revenue. A deposit earns AERO Rewards or trading fees, never both.
AERO Rewards: Tokens that stream continuously to liquidity providers, flowing to each pool in proportion to the allocations Token Operators direct to it.
Aero Flywheel: The self-reinforcing cycle at the center of Aero: allocations direct AERO Rewards, rewards attract liquidity, deeper liquidity attracts trading, and the resulting fees and Liquidity Payments draw further allocation.
Aero Foundation: The protocol's neutral steward. It operates the Momentum Fund and contracts Dromos Labs for development and marketing. A distinct entity from Dromos Labs.
Aggregator: A service that routes order flow across multiple liquidity sources. Aggregators can receive fee rebates through the Discount Registry.
Allocate / Allocating: To direct AERO Rewards to specific pools as an sAERO holder. (Replaces "voting.")
Allocation Cooldown: The minimum time between re-allocations for an sAERO stake: 47 hours at launch.
Allocation Power: A Token Operator's capacity to direct AERO Rewards: the amount of AERO staked multiplied by the duration remaining. Perpetual Stake pins it at the maximum.
AMM (Automated Market Maker): A decentralized exchange that uses mathematical formulas to automatically set prices and enable token trades based on the balance of tokens in liquidity pools, rather than relying on a traditional order book with buyers and sellers.
APR: Annual Percentage Rate. The annualized return on an investment, expressed as a percentage. It makes returns comparable across different time periods.
Autopilot: Aero's automated management tools for sAERO holders. Configure Autopilot to allocate, claim, compound, and convert rewards on your behalf.
B
Basic Pools: The plain-English category covering Volatile and Stable pools, as distinct from Slipstream (concentrated-liquidity) pools.
Boosted Rewards: A reward paid directly to liquidity providers in a pool, on top of the trading fees their deposit already earns. Anyone can fund them, including a network, an issuer, or a partner, and they are separate from AERO Rewards.
Bridge: To move assets across networks. Metaswaps handles bridging as part of the trade, so users do not bridge separately.
C
Claim: To collect the rewards or revenue accrued to a deposit or stake.
Concentrated Liquidity (CL): Liquidity provided within a chosen price range rather than across the entire price curve. On Aero, concentrated liquidity is provided through Slipstream.
D
Decay: The gradual, linear reduction of an sAERO stake's Allocation Power as its staking period shortens, unless the stake is set to Perpetual Stake.
Discount Registry: A per-network, governance-managed registry that grants specific addresses a discount on trading fees; the transparent, onchain equivalent of a TradFi rebate.
Dromos Labs: The core development company behind Aerodrome, Velodrome, and the MetaDEX model that underlies Aero. It does not own or control the protocol.
Dynamic Fees: Slipstream V3 fees that adjust with price impact and volatility, compensating liquidity providers for adverse selection.
E
ERC-20: An Ethereum standard for fungible tokens (tokens that are identical and interchangeable). AERO is an ERC-20 token. Most tokens on Ethereum-compatible networks follow this standard.
Exchange Revenue: The share of everything users pay across Aero that the protocol captures and returns to sAERO holders. It covers Pool Revenue (trading fees, MEV capture, Liquidity Payments, and Launch Payments), which goes in full to the Token Operators allocating to each pool, plus fees from Aero services beyond the exchange.
F
Fee APR: The annualized return an LP earns from trading fees on a fee-earning liquidity deposit.
Fee-earning liquidity: A liquidity deposit set to keep a portion of the fees it generates; a dynamic protocol fee share still flows to Exchange Revenue. A deposit earns trading fees or AERO Rewards, never both.
G
Gas Fees: The cost required to execute transactions on a network. Gas fees pay for the computational resources needed to process and record your transaction onchain.
Gauge: The per-pool contract that gathers a pool's allocations, AERO Rewards, trading fees, and Liquidity Payments. Only pools with an active gauge receive AERO Rewards.
Gauge caps: Each gauge has a cap on its AERO emission rate. They prevent any pool from being paid out of proportion to the fees it generates.
I
Impermanent Loss: The temporary loss that liquidity providers experience when the price of tokens in a pool moves significantly. If you deposit two tokens in equal value and their prices diverge, you end up with a lower total value than if you had simply held the tokens. The loss is "impermanent" because it can recover if prices return to their original ratio.
Integrator: A wallet, app, AI agent, launcher, or aggregator that builds on top of Aero.
L
Launch Payments: Liquidity Payments deposited to support a new token launch.
Liquidity: The availability of tokens in a market that enables trading to occur. High liquidity means you can buy or sell large amounts without significantly moving the price; low liquidity means trades have greater price impact.
Liquidity Network Token: A token that gives its holder the ability to coordinate an exchange's liquidity network. Staked as sAERO, AERO coordinates and distributes value across the network.
Liquidity Payments: Tokens deposited to encourage sAERO holders to allocate AERO Rewards to a specific pool; they stream to the allocating Token Operators as Exchange Revenue. Also called incentives; the term for what was previously called bribes.
Liquidity Pool: A smart contract that holds paired tokens and enables automated trading between them. Liquidity Providers deposit tokens into the pool; traders trade against the pool's balance. The pool is the concrete mechanism where liquidity lives.
Liquidity Provider (LP): A user who deposits tokens into a pool to provide the liquidity that powers trading.
M
MetaDEX / MetaDEX03: The exchange model developed by Dromos Labs that distributes 100% of revenue to Token Operators. MetaDEX03 is the current version and powers Aero.
Metaswaps: The Aero feature that combines bridging, aggregation, and swapping in one interface, letting a user swap any token across any connected network in a single transaction.
MEV capture: Aero keeping trading-related profit (MEV), such as from arbitrage, that outside bots would otherwise take, and returning it to liquidity providers and Token Operators.
Momentum Fund: An Aero Foundation program with three goals: grow, stabilize, and align the protocol.
N
NFT / ERC-721: A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital asset that cannot be replaced with another identical asset. ERC-721 is the Ethereum standard for NFTs. In Aero, sAERO is an ERC-721 NFT stake; each one is unique and non-interchangeable.
P
Perpetual Stake: A staking option that holds Allocation Power constant with no decay. It can be set when staking or toggled on an existing stake.
Pool: A smart contract holding a pair of token reserves that powers trading. Aero has three types: Volatile, Stable, and Slipstream.
Pool Tape: A per-pool onchain record of Slipstream fee data at one-minute resolution, readable by allocation strategies and dashboards without external infrastructure.
Predictive Allocation: Aero's mechanism for continuous, concurrent, cross-network allocation of AERO Rewards and distribution of revenue. sAERO holders allocate at any time and earn based on the productivity of the pools they back. Replaces the weekly voting cycle.
Price impact: Price change caused by a trade's size relative to the pool's liquidity depth. Predictable from trade size. Distinct from slippage.
Price range: The bounds within which a concentrated-liquidity deposit is active and earning. The user-facing form of the underlying tick spacing.
Provide liquidity: To put assets into an Aero pool. ("Deposit" is the term used in the app.)
R
Rebalancing: Moving a concentrated-liquidity deposit from its current price range to a new one. Because a range is fixed once set, this closes the deposit and reopens it in the new range as a single transaction.
REV Engine: One of Aero's two economic engines. It captures value from revenue streams beyond standard trading fees for the benefit of AERO holders.
S
sAERO: Staked AERO: an NFT representing a stake that carries allocation rights and a claim on Exchange Revenue. Replaces veAERO.
sAERO holder: Anyone who stakes AERO. The plain-language equivalent of Token Operator.
Slippage: Difference between price quoted before a trade and the price actually executed. Caused by market movements or other transactions executing first.
Slipstream: Aero's concentrated-liquidity AMM. The current version, Slipstream V3, adds dynamic fees, internal MEV capture, and the Pool Tape.
Stablecoin: A token designed to maintain a stable value, typically pegged to a fiat currency like the U.S. Dollar or another asset. Stablecoins reduce volatility and are used for trading pairs and as a store of value onchain.
Stable Pool: A pool optimized for correlated pairs, such as two stablecoins.
Stake: To convert liquid AERO into sAERO.
Stake APR: The annualized rate a Token Operator earns by allocating a stake to a specific pool.
Stake expiry: When a stake reaches the end of its period: Allocation Power drops to zero and the underlying AERO becomes available to withdraw. The sAERO NFT does not close automatically; the holder withdraws it manually.
Staking Period: How long AERO is staked, chosen from 6 months to 4 years. A longer period carries greater Allocation Power.
Staking Weight: The technical term for Allocation Power, used in governance and developer contexts. Allocation Power is the term used in the app.
Sugar: Aero's onchain API for reading pool, deposit, and allocation data directly, without external infrastructure.
T
Terms of Service: Your contract with Aerodrome Foundation governing your use of Aero.
Tick spacing: The minimum interval between the price points where Slipstream liquidity can sit; it sets how granular a price range can be. Price range is the user-facing form of the same thing.
Time-staked: A staking option where Allocation Power decays linearly over a chosen duration (6 months to 4 years) until the underlying AERO becomes withdrawable. Can be converted to Perpetual Stake at any time.
Tokenholder: Any AERO holder who is not actively staking their tokens to obtain sAERO.
Token Issuer: A team or project that launches and grows liquidity for a token on Aero.
Token Operator: An sAERO holder who actively allocates AERO Rewards to pools and earns Exchange Revenue in return. The primary term for this role; "sAERO holder" is the plain-language equivalent.
Token Registry: The per-network registry of tokens on Aero. Each registered token holds an NFT recording its metadata, tier, and listing status.
Trade: To exchange one token for another on Aero. Also called a swap.
Trader: A user who trades tokens on Aero.
V
vAPR: The Aerodrome and Velodrome term for what is now Stake APR.
Volatile Pool: A pool for uncorrelated pairs, using a constant-product curve.
W
Wallet: Software that stores your private keys and enables you to hold, send, and receive tokens. Your wallet is how you sign transactions and interact with onchain protocols.
Withdraw: To take liquidity out of a pool, remove sAERO from Autopilot, or recover staked AERO after a stake expires.