TL;DR
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Animoca Brands bought and locked AERO tokens to gain direct voting power on Aerodrome Finance.
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This vote concentration lets Animoca decide which liquidity pools receive token emissions from the protocol.
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The market reacted with an 8% price increase for AERO following the public purchase announcement.
Animoca Brands has made a strategic move by buying and locking AERO tokens as veAERO, giving it decision-making power over the distribution of rewards on Aerodrome Finance, Base’s largest decentralized exchange. This acquisition, made on October 28, 2025, intensifies the competition for control of future reward flows in a protocol that already controls more than 50% of the value locked on the Base chain.
Animoca confirmed it paid market prices for the tokens and locked them the same day as the purchase. The company, founded in 2006 and led by Robby Yung, backs Web3 projects and has a valuation of over $5.9 billion, having received $880 million in funding from Temasek and other investors.
Aerodrome Finance, Base’s largest DEX, manages over $1 billion in user deposits, representing more than 50% of the chain’s total. By converting AERO into veAERO, Animoca gains decisive votes over which liquidity pools will receive token emissions, a crucial power for both professional market makers and game studios that need deep markets for their tokens.
After the purchase became public, AERO’s price rose by approximately 8%, interpreted by traders as a bet that Aerodrome’s trading infrastructures and Animoca’s games will reinforce each other. It has also been noted that Coinbase had already published links to Aerodrome, allowing retail users to access the DEX without leaving the centralized exchange.
Implications for users and projects
In governance terms, a single holder now controls more veAERO, which means its decisions about reward pools will carry greater weight, forcing small holders to decide whether to vote for or against the new lock. Regarding liquidity, institutional money tends to deepen order books, although it can also exit quickly, causing price swings in response to rumors of additional buys or sells.
For gaming use cases, games that issue NFTs or tokens gain a space where liquid AERO pairs allow players to cash out winnings without large slippage. However, this concentration of power is also under the scrutiny of regulators and open-source critics, who monitor the influence a single entity exerts over a protocol supposedly run by the community.
Upcoming votes on Aerodrome will show how Animoca uses its new power, while traders watch the $1.00 price level and any changes in total deposits as the reward gauges are adjusted to the newcomer’s wishes.
