The upgrade changes how liquidity rewards are directed. On Aerodrome today, locked-token holders vote each week to allocate the following week’s emissions. Aero’s new model replaces that cycle with real-time allocation: holders of staked $AERO, or sAERO, direct rewards to pools and earn exchange revenue as it accrues. Allocation changes will initially have a 47-hour cooldown.
Locks Carry Over, but Migration Is Manual
Existing veAERO and veVELO positions—the NFTs representing locked tokens—convert into new sAERO positions. Remaining lock time carries over, rounded up to the next full week, while permanent locks become maximum-duration stakes.
Nothing converts automatically. Self-custodied holdings must go through the upgrade portals on aerodrome.finance or velodrome.finance. The process requires claiming rewards and rebases, then clearing active votes before upgrading a lock; anything left unclaimed cannot be recovered afterward. Centralized exchanges will run their own conversion schedules.
For Velodrome holders, conversion begins on OP Mainnet and delivers the new $AERO or sAERO on Base. The destination wallet must therefore support Base, while the upgrade requires ETH on OP Mainnet for fees.
The final voting round closes Oct. 21 at 6:59 p.m. ET. Locks that voted in that round must wait until 9 p.m. to upgrade—an hour after liquid tokens and nonvoting locks—to allow final rewards and rebases to become claimable.
Relay, which automates voting and compounding in the old system, is giving way to Aero’s automated allocation service, Autopilot. Their transition dates differ from the opening of the upgrade portals.
Liquidity Must Move to Keep Earning Token Rewards
Liquidity providers can migrate deposits through the portals once Aero pools open. Not every old pool will have a matching destination at launch; those deposits require manual withdrawal, and users can create new pools. The hub also tells users of automated liquidity management to withdraw and manage positions manually as the current automation winds down.
For $VELO-paired pools, users must withdraw, convert their $VELO into $AERO on Base, then bridge it back to OP Mainnet to provide liquidity in an upgraded pool.
The hub tells protocols to deposit their final voting incentives before the Oct. 15 epoch flip. Later deposits cannot attract liquidity because the final round’s allocated emissions will never be paid out. On Aero, incentive payments will stream continuously. The Aero Foundation says it will also distribute $AERO incentives over several weeks to offset roughly the value of final voting rewards locked in legacy gauges, the contracts that distribute pool rewards.
Legacy pools will remain live without token emissions. There is no set deadline to convert holdings, but the hub warns that legacy front ends may eventually close. An upgrade cannot be reversed.
