If you wanted to trade tokenized Nvidia or Apple shares on Base last week, odds are you did it on Aerodrome. The decentralized exchange captured over 79% of all tokenized stock trading volume on Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain, cementing its position as the de facto marketplace for a new class of on-chain equities.
The numbers behind the dominance
Coinbase-issued tokenized US equities, which went live on Base on August 24, have seen remarkable traction since launch. Cumulative DEX volume hit approximately $94.6M in just the first week and scaled to roughly $227.7M within the first 30 days, with daily peaks approaching $30M.
Aerodrome has been the primary beneficiary. Over the 30-day window, the exchange accounted for about 77% of total volume, translating to roughly $176M in trades. At certain shorter intervals, its share climbed even higher, reaching as much as 97.5%.
The AERO governance token responded accordingly, rising approximately 11% to around $0.53 following the tokenized stocks launch.
What exactly are these tokenized stocks
Each token, whether it’s NVDAc (Nvidia), AAPLc (Apple), METAc (Meta), or GOOGLc (Alphabet/Google), is backed 1:1 by actual shares held in regulated custody through Alpaca, with oversight from the Abu Dhabi Global Market.
These tokenized equities are exclusively available to eligible non-US users. Chainlink oracles provide price feeds for these assets, ensuring the on-chain prices stay tethered to their real-world counterparts. These tokenized shares can also be used as collateral in DeFi protocols like Aave on Base, meaning a trader could hold tokenized Nvidia shares, deposit them as collateral, borrow stablecoins against that position, and deploy the capital elsewhere without selling the underlying equity exposure.
Why Aerodrome keeps winning on Base
Aerodrome’s ve(3,3) tokenomics model, which incentivizes liquidity providers through a voting and rewards mechanism tied to the AERO token, creates a flywheel effect. More volume generates more fees, which attract more liquidity providers, which enables tighter spreads, which drives more volume.
What this means for the tokenized asset landscape
Nearly $228M in 30-day volume for a product available only to non-US users, on a single layer-2 network, with just four tickers, is a meaningful signal.
For Aerodrome specifically, the risk is concentration. Deriving a significant portion of growth from a single asset category, one that depends on Coinbase’s continued support and regulatory standing in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, creates a dependency that governance token holders should monitor closely.