Aero Holders Must Watch (2 Days Left!)

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On October 21st, 2026, at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, two major crypto exchanges become one. Aerodrome Finance and Vellodrome are merging. Now, Vellodrome Finance is a sister exchange on optimism. It's merging into a new protocol called Aerodrome. If you hold Aerodrome in your own wallet, here's the part a lot of people are actually gonna miss. It doesn't switch over by itself. Now, this is Aero's own guide, I'll show you what you need to do to get ready and whether you're Aerodrome in your wallet on an exchange or locked up, and then why this merger could actually matter more than the average Aerodrome holder realizes. It's similar to when a store replacing its old gift cards has to make a move. Your balance carries over, but you bring the old card to the counter and swap it. Instead, in this example, the counter is an upgrade page on Aerodrome Finance or aerodrome.finance. And this is going to open at launch, 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, October 21st. And now where this gift card comparison actually stops is there's no expiration date. Aerodrome says that there's no set deadline. But the old websites may be shut down later, and that swap only goes one way. So once you upgrade, you cannot convert it back. What you have to do during this merger actually depends on where your Aerodrome is sitting right now. First, let's start off your own wallet. It's called self-custody. You hold the keys and nobody else.

For you, this is a one for one.

One old Aerodrome becomes one new Aerodrome, and that rate doesn't change based on when you upgrade. And you need two things, a wallet that works on the base network, which is the network where Aerodrome lives on. And you're also gonna need a small amount of Ethereum on base. Think of that as ETH as a postage stamp. Every transaction on that network needs a little bit to go through. Aerodrome's guide, you can find this at aerodrome.finance slash docs slash upgrade. It's gonna show you two main steps to give the upgrade permission to use your Aerodrome, and then you confirm the upgrade. The portal isn't open yet, so this is just a guide and not an actual working screen. When it opens to the new official site and check in the new token address. When it actually opens, use the official site and check the new token's address listed. You have to do this against Aerodrome's official channels. They're going to share this on launch day, and your new Aerodrome lands as soon as you make the upgrade. Once you do that, you'll be able to move and trade it right away. The second type of holder has their tokens on an exchange. Aerodrome says that it's coordinated with the major exchanges, but each one of them runs its own process and timeline. So there's no single answer to this, no promise that it happens exactly on launch night. One might convert your balance for you, and pause deposits and withdrawals while it does it.

Your exchange's official notice is the schedule that actually is gonna count for you particularly. If you'd rather handle it yourself, then that's the wallet route that you just saw at the beginning of this explanation. Now the third type of holder is the holder of locked aerodrome. Locking is called VE arrow, and it works like a time lock safe. The tokens stay in there until the timer runs down, and you can vote on where the exchange sends its rewards to and earn a share of what your voting brings in. On aerodrome, that position becomes S arrow, staked arrow.

Some of you handed your lock to a relay, which is like a valet that votes for you. Aerodrome is asking you to withdraw from relays by October 20th. That'll bring the lock back to your own wallet so that you can vote one last time and earn that final week's rewards. Going through this process does not unlock your tokens. It stays locked, and that lock's sitting in a relay or another protocol can't be upgraded until it's back in your own wallet. Now, the final vote on this closes at 6:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on October 21st. If your lock is voted in that last round, you have to wait an extra hour so that you can upgrade from 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. That hour makes sure that the final rewards can be claimed first. And every lock that didn't vote can go live at 8 p.m. The upgrade flow walks you through claiming your rewards and clearing out your old votes. Aerodrome is calling that a reset. Make sure that you claim everything, because Aerodrome said that anything left unclaimed cannot be recovered after this upgrade goes live. Your timer carries over as well. The time left on your lock moves to S-arrow rounded up to the next full week, and a permanent lock becomes S-arrow at the maximum stake duration. Your old position number is retired, and you will get a new one. There's one more piece of this for the lockers. Autopilot is Aerodrome's hands-off option that chooses where your rewards actually go.