$100,000,000 of Crypto Being Traded on Base via Aerodrome

    [Music]
    all right ladies and gentlemen welcome
    back to another episode of the crypto
    101 podcast I’m your host Bryce as
    always joined by my good buddy my best
    pal uh Mr Brendan vean uh Brendan how
    are you doing over there uh in Sun
    Florida I’m doing great how can you not
    be doing great the having is just over a
    week away but that’s not what we’re here
    to talk about today we’re here to talk
    about something a little bit different
    equally as exciting but we’re going to
    talk about the bass network we’ve seen
    everyone asking everybody’s wanted to
    know a little bit more about bass so we
    brought in one of the lead projects from
    the bass ecosystem with Aerodrome and
    man I could not be more excited yeah uh
    I’m really really honored Alex for you
    to be here uh core contributor at
    Aerodrome uh thanks for joining us and
    how are you doing today doing very well
    how are you guys not too shabby not too
    shabby um well cool Alex we want to dive
    into Aerodrome Brendan kind of prefaced
    it you know this is the the really the
    leading uh decentralized exchange on the
    Bas Network and for those who are at
    home listening what’s the bass network
    this is the really the layer two uh
    blockchain sort of decentralized network
    that coinbase the publicly listed
    company the coinbase that you have on
    your phone they sort of incubated this
    they launched it um and so there is no
    base token um that’s a associated with
    this network I think that’s also
    important to understand don’t go home
    and go Google how to buy base token and
    get scammed um but we we wanted to get a
    deep dive on this and um we we decided
    you know there’s no better place to go
    than aerody Drome um but before we dive
    into what aerod Drome is we want to get
    to know um Alex um so tell us you know
    you know a little bit about your
    background and how you found yourself uh
    building this you know incredibly
    successful wildly explosive move here
    um how’ you how’d you get started here
    yeah of course um thanks so much for
    having me uh I feel like it’s not an
    atypical story for for people in crypto
    and defi but you know my career Journey
    has been anything other than than a
    straight line um I worked in politics
    and campaigns for a period um got really
    burnt out doing that um went to work uh
    in big tech for a while um decided I I
    wanted to to mix things up um went into
    sort of the Consulting and agency world
    for a little bit and it was at that
    point in my life that uh you know I I
    had a friend whispering in my ear about
    crypto it was it was defi
    summer uh he he said the magic words for
    me at that moment which was hey uh I’m
    quitting my very good job because I
    don’t need to work anymore all I’m doing
    these days is yield farming and I was
    like okay all right I’ve gota I’ve got
    to start playing around right and then
    you start down the rabbit hole you know
    you buy some eth you move it on chain
    you start providing liquidity you earn
    rewards then what do I go do with these
    tokens right you lock them you
    participate in thousands and other
    systems and of course uh before I knew
    it uh it was all that I wanted to do you
    know I I brought all my money on chain I
    was just you know dejing it up trying to
    learn as much as I could and it got to
    the point where of course you know I
    couldn’t do a job and be this solely
    focused on on defi so I I made the leap
    right I quit the job I didn’t have a
    plan other than other than just diving
    deep in and uh as things do in the space
    it just kind of started to snowball from
    there uh met other people contributed
    where I could um met a great group of
    people that are the the folks who you
    know helped us to to launch V Drome and
    then eventually Aerodrome and you know I
    really think the the rest is is kind of
    history now awesome yeah um Brendan you
    he told me this incredible stat um just
    before we got on he said that the fourth
    highest revenue of blockchain projects
    um in the past 30 days um that’s bass so
    Bas has now you know it’s about you know
    it’s like Bitcoin it’s ethereum maybe
    it’s salana and then it’s Bas um and
    arrow is uh the top project on base in
    terms of volume in terms of Revenue um
    tell us a little bit about you know what
    are you know you know what are those top
    metrics that um aerody Drome has been
    accomplishing and how have you done it
    what’s the secret yeah
    um boy I mean so many ways you you you
    can prob
    attack that question um I guess maybe
    where I would start is just that um you
    know the the Genesis for for velodrome
    and then then Aerodrome was a a DEX that
    Andre cron launched on on Phantom kind
    of at the at the very end of of the last
    bull market and I kind of actually I
    think about that that launch and
    billions of dollars of tvl flowing into
    Phantom as like the the last high water
    mark and then it was like totally
    nothing but pain afterwards right
    totally so uh Andre launch that was like
    November that was like November 2021
    practically yeah yeah that’s what I
    think that’s when he announced it I
    think it went live January and then it
    was just like blow after blow right um
    that we had to
    endure uh but you know his his vision
    for this new deck primitive was
    basically something that brought to be
    brought together the best parts of curve
    convex and Unis swap uh wrapped it all
    into a single streamlined uh Dex design
    uh that aligned incentives really well
    and was designed to basically be the
    liquidity layer of like a a growing
    ecosystem and um while solidly for for a
    multitude of reasons you know didn’t end
    up kind of being what everybody maybe
    hoped it would in that moment um I think
    the core thesis behind it right was
    absolutely right um that you could take
    all of these uh amazing Primitives that
    prove proven themselves out in the last
    cycle you could bring them all into a
    single layer and uh by virtue of doing
    that right not having to go to Unis swap
    for your V2 style pools curve for your
    stable ones go to convex if you want to
    incentivize you know having everybody
    take their cuts you know along the way
    by wrapping it all together you have
    something really special and so um when
    Andre uh you know decided to take his
    Hiatus from from
    defi um we sort of looked at the solidly
    model and we said uh based on what we
    saw what are some tweaks we can make to
    the underlying economic model which
    functions very similar to curve if
    you’re familiar right kind of emissions
    based V tokens all of that sort of stuff
    so what are some tweaks we can make to
    the economic model some tweaks the
    underlying code base and then deploy
    this on an ecosystem that we think is
    desperately in need of of this kind of
    uh liquidity Hub and for us uh our
    choice was was optimism because uh we
    felt that even if the whole Market was
    going to contract you know basically
    even if we were going to go through the
    the hell that we we did that there was
    going to be growth in pockets and and
    our thesis was those pockets would be
    ethereum uh layer twos and so velodrome
    was the the beginning of that um
    Aerodrome of course uh came later and
    and I can I can get into even more about
    you know some of the things that I think
    lead to the success but you know I’ll
    maybe pause there well yeah I mean let’s
    dive into that because when you think
    about layer 2os in previous Cycles they
    were there but now they are extremely
    prevalent and most people that are
    crypto savvy are familiar with and have
    used layer 2 now and it feels like
    they’ve kind of exploded onto the scene
    since the last Bull Run and I think
    maybe part of that is because people
    really got to experience what high gas
    fees could look like last cycle and ever
    since then it kind of created this this
    wave of people who are so focused on
    using it for all these different
    purposes and you know now you look at at
    today in the current circumstances and
    it’s kind of the same thing and now it’s
    beyond just ethereum right I mean even
    salana lately which supposed to have a
    much higher throughput than the ethereum
    Bas layer even they’re having issues and
    so people are looking at the space of
    layer twos and uh you know they’re
    becoming really interested with them so
    I mean like do you think that that is
    something that has contributed to like
    the the current
    circumstances yeah absolutely and and
    for us it was it was a very intentional
    choice you know even at that moment
    right um where we were looking at where
    to deploy the the moment the industry
    was still such that everybody told us
    you know go to Avalanche go to salana go
    to E thean
    mainnet uh you know rebuild it on
    Phantom and they said you know why in
    God’s name are you going to optimism
    this this seemingly you know dead chain
    right you know what are you doing that’s
    not where are it’s not where the
    activity is you know are you guys nuts
    but uh are perspective has always been
    that I think generally speaking in our
    industry we have like a very like today
    oriented attitude or like a a strong
    recency bias right so yes obviously tvl
    users transactions at that point every
    other chain should have looked far more
    uh attractive to us but we had this
    sense that the ethereum L or sorry the
    alternate uh L1 moment had been very
    much propped up on uh you know
    investment and incentives in these
    ecosystems and that in sort of a a
    contraction moment everything was going
    to shift back to to fundamentals to a
    degree um and that we thought those
    ecosystems would contract right those
    incentives would dry up the people
    basically fronting all of that um
    wouldn’t wouldn’t be able to sustain it
    um they didn’t couldn’t perpetuate it
    from behind bars I mean yes we didn’t we
    didn’t even know how how hard the would
    get pulled in some places right um right
    uh but we we bet on ethereum layer to
    because you know the one thing that we
    knew was resilient was ethereum right
    and and there I mean there are people
    and there are Builders who will Who will
    never leave uh ethereum they will never
    take their money even back into
    traditional Financial systems so if the
    BET was on uh ethereum the question is
    where were where was uh ethereum going
    to grow in scale and that was going to
    be on l2s because we knew why people
    love to use alternate layer ones right
    they’re fast they’re cheap um uh you
    know they have new and interesting
    projects launching because they are so
    accessible and we knew that the promise
    of layer 2s was that they were going to
    be able to deliver that and while like
    EIP 4844 was uh way out there in the
    distance I think when we launched we
    knew that you know ethereum delivers on
    the road mapap so we knew eventually
    that 4844 would launch and that
    transaction fees on these l2s would feel
    as good as any of these alt layer ones
    but it would come with all the security
    assurances you know of
    ethereum uh we also knew that they would
    continue to decentralize and I think
    that’s going to be the next big catalyst
    is op stack uh decentralization because
    there’s a lot of people who until they
    have those security guarantees right
    won’t move over but yeah I think that
    was basically it we we figured that was
    going to be the place where you were
    going to be able to combine some of the
    things that made the alt one successful
    but do it on top of ethereum and that
    basically this moment that’s come which
    is exponential growth on
    l2s uh we wanted to be there to service
    it and we wanted to use all that time in
    between when people were focused on
    wherever the puck was right to be where
    the puck was going so we could welcome
    everyone on right yeah I think when you
    look at like the current state of base 2
    um there is a lot of like d gen activity
    happening there at the moment right I
    mean there’s a lot of meme coins and
    other stuff but then there’s a lot of
    really valuable projects being built as
    well so I kind of feel like you get a
    little bit of like the best of of Both
    Worlds um but from like an activity
    standpoint like where would you say that
    you or what do you see the most activity
    happening like what genre um um you see
    the most activity happening on base I
    mean right now I would say it it’s all
    of the above uh because
    um what we saw right uh and we saw the
    same thing on on optimism when when we
    launched there is there is like a set of
    of projects and Builders who they will
    just be everywhere right you spin up a
    new
    chain uh you you launch somewhere and
    they’re going to make sure you know that
    they’re forked over there they’ve got
    some you know at least nominal amount of
    opportunity but they’ll be there early
    and good to go and then there’s usually
    kind of a little bit of a slump right
    because for everybody else they’re kind
    of like weighing their options they’re
    saying you know do I launch this uh meme
    coin on on salana do I launch it on
    arbitrum do I launch it on base and then
    you’ve got Builders you know and
    projects and Dows where it just takes uh
    either a lot of smart contract work it
    takes you know moving the political
    apparatus of a dow right and there’s
    sort of this legging effect so when we
    saw basis tvl initially go up um then
    you saw just a little bit of a dip and
    for us like so much of what we do is uh
    helping new projects to on board um you
    know introducing them to the ecosystem
    helping them bootstrap liquidity all
    that sort of fun stuff but uh what
    happened sort of really quickly after
    that that dip was um everybody started
    to reach out so obviously like one of
    the first things you will often see is
    the explosion in meme coins shitcoins
    like whatever right that is one of the
    the lowest friction ways for for folks
    to deploy get active generate a lot of
    speculation activity and all that sort
    of stuff but uh it’s not just limited to
    that uh right now uh and I would say we
    we’ve just like doubled our our bis Dev
    and Partnerships team it’s it’s so
    overwhelming right now um almost every
    token um and major project on L1 is
    looking to uh either you know have sort
    of a split strategy on base and L1 or
    maybe even to move a great deal of their
    tvl to layer 2 and this was always the
    idea right that
    eventually um projects were going to
    sort of choose a place on L2 to live
    because of course once
    um you hit certain levels of activity
    and volume and all that sort of stuff uh
    who would ever want to go to L1 to
    interact with your stuff anymore right
    you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg
    to do that so we’re finally starting to
    see that and then we’re also starting to
    see uh for the first time projects on
    other
    l2s um either migrating um because they
    they feel like maybe maybe the momentum
    has has shifted um I think a lot of
    people are betting on basis promise
    right to onboard uh a ton of their their
    users to integrate their products
    directly into services on the chain and
    if you’re on polygon and arbitrum I mean
    that’s just a fundamentally different
    value proposition if you want you know
    to access all of those users and so
    right now you know it does just truly
    feel like it it is everyone everyone is
    at least thinking about in the process
    of or has begun you know implementing
    strategies on base or even the broader
    like optimism super chain yeah and I’m
    seeing the same stuff on my end um I was
    talking to a project a few months ago
    and they were like Hey we’re actually
    moving from polygon to base and they
    explained why and the institutional
    connections and the onboarding and how
    that improves their user experience and
    um kind of on the same story of what you
    were just saying I have two buddies who
    have been working on a in an ethereum
    project for years now and they were just
    getting ready to launch I’m not going to
    say the name of it um but they just hit
    me up and they’re like hey man I think
    we are going to potentially like pivot
    over to Bas and originally they’re on
    the ethereum main chain and they’re
    doing exactly what you’re talking about
    kind of like having this dual presence
    on the ethereum main chain but also on
    base and that wasn’t something that they
    were looking at before but now they’re
    kind of going through the launching
    process and the current market with gasp
    and other stuff and they’re like yeah
    you know we are actually going to look
    at a layer two and the main layer two
    that we’re looking at is base right now
    yeah and so as time goes on I think
    there’s going to be a lot of other
    projects that go through that same kind
    of realization process they’re going to
    come to the same conclusion and I
    wouldn’t be surprised if that becomes a
    more popular Trend yeah if I I’ve had a
    few of these moments um in in working
    with other builders where they do like a
    a test deployment right of of their
    contracts um onto the base test net or
    optimism test net and they look at the
    cost of it and they’re just flumix right
    um and and the minute that they see that
    I think that the wheels just start
    spinning because that’s not just about
    like oh it’s cheaper to launch right
    it’s now cheaper to operate it’s it’s
    now uh possible to add features that you
    never thought you you could had before
    and the wheels just start turning and
    that does just feel like a a paradigm
    shift in in the moment that that we’re
    in that uh folks as soon as they get a
    taste of that and as soon as the the
    network effects and users are there and
    as soon as the security is there it’s
    it’s uh I mean I think it’s going to be
    wild I I’m already in I’m already of the
    mindset that that BAS will will very
    soon be the largest ethereum layered to
    by tvl um it’s already topped things by
    by volume and by transactions it’s even
    past ethereum mainnet uh I think tvl uh
    will be number one soon as well um and
    uh I mean if you just imagine uh a world
    where it’s uh the the two largest chains
    operating on every meaningful metric is
    ethereum and base you
    wonder you know what’s the fate of some
    of these other other ecosystems I just
    it’s going to look so different and
    that’s why we’re just so excited to to
    be on base and to be a part of of that
    growth right and and so does that almost
    mean um there you know you guys because
    I think about you know folks being cross
    chain right and we’re we’ve got
    instances on all the different chains um
    and I I’m not sure if that’s the case
    for V or for Vel Drome or aerod Drome
    more specifically um and is it because
    kind of you really only want to bet on
    bass and um not on madic and all that
    other stuff and um are there plans to go
    cross chain or uh sticking with the evm
    on base yeah it’s a it’s a good question
    um you know one thing we we looked at
    after launching uh vrum and there was I
    guess a a ton of interest uh you know
    for for us to either deploy like a fork
    of V somewhere else or or take velum
    multi-chain uh one thing we looked at is
    just that the multi-chain decks thesis
    has not proven itself out right um and
    you can just see this in the the like
    tvl numbers on on optimism or Bass right
    look at pancake swap on bass you know
    look at Curve on optimism or Bass um uh
    look at uh balancer right and very
    marginal amounts of of t
    very marginal amounts of activity these
    protocols their their incentives their
    economic activity is still usually just
    happening on one chain and that’s why
    it’s wild right we talking about uh the
    the revenue uh or rewards numbers for
    for Aerodrome right and then being like
    5x what curve is doing but if you look
    in defy Lama curves on 15 chains AER
    Dres on one right and so there is uh I
    think value in the incentive alignment
    that comes with focusing you know on a
    single chain um it totally aligns your
    incentives to focus on the growth and
    scaling of that chain uh that said
    though with optimism their vision is to
    connect together uh all of these chains
    that are being built on the op stack and
    that are participating in the super
    chain to connect them together in such a
    way that it abstracts away that the
    complexities and frictions of moving
    between these chains so one day uh
    operating on the super chain should feel
    as cohesive as you know operating on a
    monolithic chain as operating on on op
    main net So the plan basically for
    velodrome is to extend horizontally
    across these super chains so vr’s
    already announced um uh we’re going to
    mode we’re going to uh build on bitcoin
    which is an exciting new bit coin based
    L2 building on the op stack um there’s a
    number of others you know worldcoin uh
    Zora fraxel a bunch of others and so uh
    vone is going to be kind of the
    liquidity layer across these uh super
    chains making sure that each of these
    chains can can build liquidity um over
    time as the interoperability comes
    online that that liquidity is accessible
    across these chains and so that’s sort
    of the vision for belum think it’s a
    little different than cross chain
    because it’s going to be very much
    integrated over time into this uh
    interoperability uh technology that will
    only work in the way that it can work
    because these are all operating on the
    same technology stack uh the plan for
    Aerodrome though uh because we expect
    base probably to be as big if not bigger
    than every other super chain uh combined
    in the medium term is to integrate like
    very uh vertically um into Bas and what
    that means is we expect Bas to have some
    very unique offerings uh you guys have
    probably seen that like uh coinbase has
    begun to move uh some of their own uh
    usdc onto the chain um they’re working
    to build uh bring on some of their
    institutional Partners on
    chain um they are integrating products
    and services on base directly into their
    their applications
    uh their new smart wallet uh and we’re
    seeing uh a sort of dizzying amount of
    l3s already beginning to be built on top
    of base and so aerod drone’s job is
    really to uh service that in the way
    that only a native layer can right if if
    you are a a multi-chain DEX you’re not
    going to be able to
    basically Uh custom design for The
    Unique needs of Bas and in the same way
    that a native layer can awesome well
    some of the things that uh you’ve talked
    about um uh heavily uh incentivized
    platform uh Aerodrome is for users and
    so I just want to know a little bit
    about how listeners at home who are like
    oh wow you know I want to you know I
    want to get involved and maybe even earn
    some aerody Drome tokens like how can
    somebody do that
    yeah there are a lot of ways to do it
    and I I always love to kind of filter it
    uh through my own experience right and
    and how I got I got started doing any of
    this so of course the the simplest way
    to to use Aerodrome right is just to to
    go on there and Bridge some some uh
    funds on the base you can do that via uh
    of course the official Bridge any number
    of the bridge Partners you can even of
    course without any fees bring money from
    coinbase onto base if you’re a coinbase
    user so it’s very easy to get on the
    base and then uh you know one of the
    easiest things is just to like go to the
    the swap page you know look at other
    projects and tokens in the ecosystem and
    kind of say like hey do I want to swap
    some of this usdc for um moonwell which
    is a lending protocol or grand base or
    any of these other ecosystem projects um
    then you go get involved in those
    projects and and you learn more about it
    maybe you’re participating in Dows you
    know using some of their uh Services uh
    but then like the next step in Aerodrome
    would be like hey um I now have these
    two tokens I have some usdc I have some
    some uh moonwell and I’m going to pair
    up those two tokens and provide
    liquidity and uh you know providing
    liquidity is is just kind of the thing
    that uh supports trading right you are
    the person who’s offering up both sides
    of that pool so that somebody can swap
    their tokens one way and can swap them
    the other and the reward that we give
    you for for doing that right or the the
    reward I should say the protocol does
    because this is all totally
    permissionless and decentralized if I
    were to disappear from this Earth You
    know all of this stuff would work
    exactly as it does now without any human
    intervention needed that’s the beauty of
    the system but uh you would earn aot
    tokens um as a reward and if you want to
    take those aot tokens and swap them for
    for eth or your favorite coin you could
    do that um you could also take those
    arot tokens lock them uh and then begin
    participating in the direction of
    emissions right so you could direct more
    missions through your voting power to
    the pool in which you’re providing
    liquidity right support that project
    support your own liquidity position and
    then you’re earning back the rewards
    that pool generates right the fees it’s
    generating any incentives deposited on
    it and so it it it is like um it is
    something like graduating right into
    like slight more more complex things but
    it’s it’s just great that um you can
    kind of just ease your way in right dip
    your toes in go a little bit deeper if
    you want go a little deeper if you want
    figure out the things the activities in
    defi that uh are most rewarding to you
    that you’re most interested in and and I
    think we provide a lot of different ways
    to to do that yeah I mean and and with
    the the growth of not only Bass But
    Aerodrome as a whole here did you notice
    Noti any kind of of growing pains in
    recent weeks with like the explosion of
    activity and throughput I mean when I
    think of like when the crypto Market
    goes wild like use coinbase as an
    example right a couple weeks ago when
    price after stopped
    working yeah it literally just stopped
    working and they were like guys we were
    prepared to do 10 times our normal
    throughput and you blew that out of the
    water and we were just not expecting
    this kind of activity and they went down
    for a little bit and they they had to
    collect themselves and so I’m kind of
    wondering you know have you or or
    Aerodrome gone through the same thing
    where you’re like hey we were expecting
    you know this amount and now we saw five
    10 15 20 times that or whatever it may
    be and did you all as a team have to
    kind of get together and be like let’s
    let’s expand here so I guess like the
    the big question from this is like what
    kind of growing pains have you all gone
    through yeah you know um I think for us
    uh there there hasn’t been anything on
    the the technical side and and that that
    is just because um we built a protocol
    from the the very beginning to uh be as
    decentralized as as humanly possible
    right so we’ve built on immutable
    contracts uh that cannot be changed uh
    our front end doesn’t rely on any
    centralized backends apis sort of things
    like that it’s all live data off the
    chain and so that means that you know
    from a product
    standpoint uh it just scales it scales
    with activity it scales with demand um
    the only thing you know we saw that
    every base user experienced too was
    imediately after
    4844 where demand went exponential and
    gas fees you know went nuts again and
    then the base team had to sort of do
    their work to increase the overall
    capacity and now those fees are back
    down you know in the in the sense
    thankfully but that was the only like
    technical thing that happened and I mean
    that’s just the chain workking as it’s
    supposed to more demand higher costs
    keep everything uh in Balance I think
    for us though the like growing pains is
    more just like you know we’re we try to
    be out there supporting the community we
    try to be there answering questions you
    know we try to do uh you know Outreach
    to Partners and help them on board and
    all that sort of stuff and that has
    definitely gone exponential and so
    that’s where I I’ve definitely I said
    you know we we were already in the
    process of bringing some folks on board
    so the timing was good but you know I’ve
    got a 100 telegram messages going at at
    any given time and and there was there
    was a there was a period where it all
    felt very manageable and and now it’s
    like we need systems we need process we
    need we need like to divide and conquer
    certain things um but those are the the
    good problems to have that’s that’s just
    everyone wants to be on base uh they see
    us as the front door of the ecosystem so
    naturally they’re going to knock on our
    door first and uh we’re going to do
    everything we can to support that that
    onboarding awesome well one of the
    really cool things that I saw get
    published I think it was literally just
    a few hours ago like two or three hours
    ago is about a uh a slipstream upgrade
    or something along those lines is that
    correct yep yep that’s correct yeah I
    mean walk us through that because it
    seems like it’s going to be a really
    positive thing from a liquidity
    standpoint yeah so so yeah this is super
    exciting I as I described at the
    beginning um you know the the original
    Core Design right is is what if we took
    the best of curve convex uh and Unis
    Swap and rolled it all all into one
    right and and we’ve sort of labeled this
    the the metad deex model you don’t need
    for different protocols to do all of
    those things you don’t need derivative
    tokens you don’t need all these
    different layers uh just build all the
    best functionality into one place and um
    uh originally though the the two core
    amm right were a sort of curve style
    stable swap optimized amm and then your
    univ V2 style uh amm which of course I
    think has uh demonstrated its its
    resiliency you know even in the face of
    of uh univ V3 and and other models that
    have come there’s something just very
    tried and true very effective about
    those uni V2 style pools uh however we
    know that uh for extremely high volume
    pairs right in these ecosystems um in
    optimism you know an OP WRA eth pool a
    WRA e usdc pool um on on base you know
    your uh R stake de usdc your rapde usdc
    these are pools that uh are extremely
    well served by liquidity concentration
    right you can deliver much better uh
    swap execution so less slippage with
    less uh total
    liquidity um such that you know it can
    just boost volumes and um the trading
    experience across the chain which is
    stuff that improves the the overall
    ecosystem so uh we recently rolled out
    slip stream on on velodrome on optimism
    and what slipstream is going to do is
    basically for the handful pools uh on
    optimism that uh benefit tremendously
    right from concentration uh we’re now
    going to be able to service them and the
    exciting thing about it is that we know
    our model is capable of attracting major
    tvl differentials you know I think on
    base right now for instance Aerodrome
    has like 2.6 times the total
    tvl as uh as Unis swap does so what
    happens when you take that kind of tvl
    um uh differential and you are able to
    concentrate it um at a competitive level
    well then you are going to be the best
    route for aggregators right um because
    you’re gonna have the deepest uh most
    concentrated
    liquidity and that means more volume
    will start flowing through those pools
    uh they will start generating more fees
    that flow to the ve lockers the you know
    the the folks sort of directing
    emissions each week and it has the
    potential to really have like a a
    vampire like effect on on Unis swap
    because the the moment you start taking
    the fees right and the volume from Unis
    swap they have no other way to subsidize
    that right it is just fees and if
    suddenly aggregators aren’t choosing
    your liquidity over in Unis swap those
    those uh liquidity providers are going
    to look for where the best yields are
    those are on on Aerodrome or or
    velodrome now and so like going all the
    way back to like the launch of curv V2
    um that was the last time I feel like
    there was a moment in defi where uh the
    you know industry or those people
    watched it said maybe there’s going to
    finally be somebody who can Dethrone um
    Unis swaps volume dominance right they
    don’t have a fee switch you know there’s
    all these compromises of course to to
    being on Unis swap but they go out there
    and they win volume because of this
    concentration we’ve never seen um a a
    DEX with the tvl differential plus uh uh
    competitive execution and that’s where I
    think things get get very very exciting
    both for V Drome uh and for Aerodrome
    because you guys saw maybe I think last
    week over a billion dollars in in volume
    you know on on on base like if if if we
    can make Aerodrome the best place to to
    trade um I it’s going to be very
    exciting to see yeah and I I think you
    guys are uh clearly uh this goes without
    State and you guys are well on your way
    uh to being just that so um hey Alex we
    really appreciate you coming on talking
    all things Bas all things aerody Drome
    um where would you recommend our uh you
    know our listeners kind of stay in touch
    you know is is it a big Twitter
    Community uh Discord telegram yeah
    definitely check out uh our Twitter’s
    Aerodrome fi and vrum fi uh LinkedIn our
    profiles of course is our
    Discord uh our medium I would say our
    Discord communities these days are
    absolutely hopping so you know if this
    is all new to you and and you want to
    you know get into a place and and learn
    more about it and ask questions
    definitely recommend jump into the
    Discord um definitely follow us on on
    Twitter uh we we’ll keep you updated
    with things like slipstream launch and
    and New Pools and and all that sort of
    fun stuff and uh yeah I on Twitter I’m
    atwg me Alexander definitely uh feel
    free to follow me and say hi as well um
    uh but yeah I I mean I definitely
    appreciate the the opportunity guys yeah
    100% I I could definitely uh you know
    see a lot of folks who are following
    that are you know defi Traders or
    wanting to get into defi trading being
    able to find a lot of value in your
    Discord I I I’m sure they were listening
    to that last you know 10 or 15 minute
    Riff on uh liquidity providing and yield
    farming and they’re like all right I got
    to get closer to this guy um because
    that’s what I’m thinking no that was
    awesome and uh yeah Alex we we
    appreciate your time um shout out to
    your whole team at Arrow and uh yeah we
    we’ll see you next time welcome back uh
    whenever you want all right byebye

    In this episode of the Crypto 101, Bryce and Brendan talk with Alex, a core contributor at Aerodrome, one of the leading decentralized exchanges on the Base network. Alex shares his journey from politics and big tech into the world of DeFi, fueled by his early experiences in yield farming and his deep dive into Ethereum. He discusses the vision and success of Aerodrome within the Base ecosystem, highlighting its strategic focus on Ethereum layer-two solutions, which offer the same benefits as alternate layer-ones but with better security and lower costs. The episode delves into the explosive growth of layer-two solutions, noting how Aerodrome is positioned at the forefront of this wave, capitalizing on the shift from high gas fees on Ethereum to more efficient and scalable solutions. Alex also discusses the broader impacts of this shift on the crypto ecosystem, predicting significant growth and centralization of activity on platforms like Base, driven by its technological and strategic advantages.

    Get immediate access to my entire crypto portfolio.. just $1.00 today! Go here to get access: https://www.cryptorevolution.com/cryptnation-direct

    Get your FREE copy of “Crypto Revolution: Your Guide To The Future of Money”. In this book, I reveal how to make (and keep) a fortune during this 2024 crypto bull run! https://www.cryptorevolution.com/free

    Follow us on social media for leading-edge crypto updates and trade alerts:

    https://www.instagram.com/crypto_101/

    @crypto101_podcast

    *This is NOT financial, tax, or legal advice*

    Boardwalk Flock LLC. All Rights Reserved 2024.

    1 Comment

    Leave A Reply
    Share via