Aerodrome tops $1b in TVL amid dominance on Base

Aerodrome has surpassed the $1 billion mark in total value locked as deposits into the liquidity protocol soared.

Data from DeFiLlama shows Aerodrome, a decentralized exchange platform on the Base, saw its TVL rise by 22% in the past week to hit the landmark $1 billion. This has also coincided with a surge for AERO price, which is up 23% in the past 24 hours and 50% in the past week to change hands around $1.27.

Launched in August 2023, Aerodrome has become the top DEX platform on the Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 chain Base. Within weeks of its launch, the protocol had helped Base’s TVL surpass $400 million. Growth has accelerated in 2024, boosted by a Base ecosystem fund launched in February.

DeFiLlama data as of September 27, 2024 showed that Aerodrome Finance’s $1.02 billion total value locked was the highest of all protocols on Base.

As of writing, Base TVL stood at $2.5 billion, having jumped more than 400% since February 2024 when it hovered around $490 million.

Over a third of Base TVL on Aerodrome

As an automated market maker, Aerodrome provides for a decentralized trading environment where users deposit tokens in liquidity pools. When users deposit crypto pairs, they receive liquidity provider tokens, or LP tokens.

Staking of LP tokens allows users to earn AERO as well as the governance token veAERO.

Growth has seen Aerodrome become the protocol with the highest on-chain trading volume for pools across Ethereum, Bitcoin (BTC), USDC (USDC) and EURC.

With Aerodrome dominating, more than a third of Base TVL is in assets locked in the DEX protocol. Per DeFiLlama data, the next four highest protocols by deposits still don’t account for its $1 billion TVL when combined.

Decentralized finance protocol Aave (AAVE) V3 currently has $236 million in locked assets, while DEX platform Uniswap (UNI) ranks third with $222 million. Meanwhile, lending protocols Moonwell and Morpho Blue have $192 million and $151 million in TVL respectively to complete the top five.