Who Is Alexander Cutler? The CEO Behind Aerodrome and Aero

Alexander Cutler is the CEO of Dromos Labs who leads the team behind Aero, the exchange Aerodrome and Velodrome merged into in late October 2026, and by the late-October close holders had upgraded only 49.78% of the old AERO supply. The new AERO set aside for everyone else waits in contracts whose 3-of-7 multisig owner can burn it.

Holders on Velodrome, the older of the two exchanges Cutler's company built, upgraded 49.71% of its VELO supply by the same close. Across the two exchanges, 1.070 billion new AERO stayed unclaimed, 50.29% of the new token's supply. Aerodrome's upgrade guide promises no deadline and no penalty for waiting. The contracts still give their owner a way to close the offer, and on Velodrome's side it takes a single call.

Alexander Cutler at a Glance

Who Is Alexander Cutler?

Alexander Cutler runs Dromos Labs, which describes itself as the core contributing development company behind Aero. Its two older exchanges are Aerodrome and Velodrome, which pool liquidity providers' deposits and price swaps with an automated market maker. Cutler's company says the model behind them was proven on both before it went into Aero.

This is the crypto Alexander Cutler, the one Dromos Labs' team page lists first, under the title Chief Executive Officer.

Cutler's company points to coverage of its work by Bankless and Messari Research. On 12 November 2025 Dromos and its two exchanges hosted an invite-only event called A New Horizon at Lincoln Center in New York.

Alexander Cutler's Career: Velodrome, Aerodrome and Dromos Labs

Before crypto, Alexander Cutler's career began in political organizing, where he led mobilization efforts at the state and federal levels. That account comes from the October 2025 post that introduced Dromos Labs and its executive team.

The same post says Cutler then held several roles at Apple, including leading a global talent development program. He later worked as a consultant for large technology companies such as Meta and Microsoft.

Alexander Cutler's crypto career before Dromos Labs is harder to pin to a title. Dromos Labs' team page and its introduction post both call Cutler CEO of Dromos Labs and give him no earlier title at Velodrome or Aerodrome.

Velodrome came first. It launched on Optimism, the Layer 2 chain, and its first VELO contract holds code from 1 June 2022. A second VELO token followed with Velodrome V2 on 22 June 2023, and that's the token holders upgraded in late October 2026.

Aerodrome followed on Base, where its AERO contract holds code from 28 August 2023. That's the launch date Aerodrome's own docs give, and the docs add that it launched "without VC backing or token sales".

Dromos says the same of itself. "We've taken no VC funding and sold no tokens," Cutler's company says on its site, and it ties its staff's pay to the success of what they build.

What Happened to Aerodrome Finance?

Aerodrome Finance merged with Velodrome into one exchange called Aero in late October 2026, and holders swap old AERO for the new token one for one. Aerodrome's docs had flagged the plan for 2026, calling Aero "the unified liquidity layer for all of Ethereum".

Cutler's team at Dromos Labs publishes the addresses of the new AERO token and its migration contracts, which went live on Base and OP Mainnet in mid-October 2026. On chain, those contracts opened to locked positions two hours before launch and to liquid tokens at the launch itself.

Aerodrome's upgrade guide says the upgrade opened at the same moment Aero launched. Locks that voted in the final epoch had to wait one more hour, and the new AERO can be traded as soon as it lands in your wallet.

Liquidity providers got their own flow. The guide says Aero finds the matching liquidity pool for each deposit automatically, so you don't pick one by hand.

The rates are fixed. One AERO becomes one new AERO and one VELO becomes 0.044 AERO, the rate that carries Velodrome's share of 117 million new AERO against 2.01 billion for Aerodrome holders. In percentage terms the merger hands 94.5% of the new token to Aerodrome's side and 5.5% to Velodrome's.

How Much AERO and VELO Has Been Upgraded?

Close to half, on each side. Aerodrome's migration contract had taken in 999.0 million old AERO by the late-October close, or 49.78% of the 2.007 billion in existence. Velodrome's contract on OP Mainnet had taken 1.321 billion VELO, and the Base side had paid out 58.10 million new AERO for it at exactly 0.044 a token.

What hadn't moved is the bigger number. Of the 2.128 billion new AERO in existence at that close, 1.070 billion sat unclaimed in the two migration contracts. Aerodrome's side held 1.011 billion of it and Velodrome's 58.90 million.

The old AERO that holders hand in isn't destroyed. The contract adds it to one permanently locked position on Aerodrome's old voting-escrow contract, so handing it in doesn't shrink the old token's supply.

Aerodrome's guide also says there is no announced cutoff date, and the contracts from Cutler's company let their owner set one. All three migration contracts answer to one owner, a Safe multisig that needs three of its seven signers. The migration contract's published code lets that owner burn whatever new AERO is left.

A simulated call from that multisig at the late-October close block went through on Velodrome's side. It would have burned the 58.90 million AERO still reserved for VELO holders. On Aerodrome's side the same call fails until the owner pauses the contract, and with a pause simulated it goes through. A call from any other address fails on both.

Velodrome's contract on OP Mainnet also doesn't check the Base budget before it accepts VELO, while the Base side refuses any payout larger than what's left. So a burn on Base without a pause on OP Mainnet would leave late VELO upgrades unpaid.

A burn takes tokens out of supply for good, which is what it means to burn crypto, and anyone who hadn't upgraded would have nothing left to claim. Nothing on chain says the multisig plans to do it, and Aerodrome's three upgrade guides don't mention the burn function.

If you haven't converted, the "no deadline" in the merger Cutler's company built rests on three signatures, and the code gives holders no say in it.

Method: supplies, balances and paid totals were read by eth_call at the last Base and OP Mainnet blocks before the late-October close. Both burns were simulated from the owner and from an unrelated address, and the signing threshold came from the Safe itself.

Check: on Aerodrome's side the upgraded and remaining totals add up to exactly 2.01 billion. On Velodrome's, the AERO paid out divided by the VELO taken in comes to 0.044000.

How Do You Trade Crypto Futures on Phemex?

The AERO perpetual came off Phemex in June 2026, four months before Cutler's company opened the upgrade, and both of Phemex's VELODROME pairs were delisted in 2026 as well.

An AERO/USDT spot pair is still listed on Phemex. Its English announcements carry no notice on which AERO that pair holds after the upgrade, so confirm the token before you trade it. Broader crypto futures run on the same Phemex account, and opening a position takes three steps.

1. Create a Phemex account and fund it with USDT.

2. Open Futures and pick a USDT-margined perpetual such as BTC/USDT.

3. Choose your margin mode and leverage, then set a stop-loss before you place the order.

Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses reach its margin.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Aerodrome Finance dead?

No. Aerodrome merged with Velodrome into Aero in late October 2026, and Aerodrome's app hosts the upgrade page that swaps old AERO for the new token one for one. Locked AERO converts to staked AERO on Aero at the same rate.

What does Aerodrome Finance do?

Aerodrome is a decentralized exchange on Base built around AERO rewards for liquidity providers. Holders who locked AERO voted each week on which pools earned those rewards and collected a share of exchange revenue. In late October 2026 that system moved into Aero, the exchange Aerodrome and Velodrome merged into.

Is Alexander Cutler the Aerodrome founder?

Dromos Labs' team page lists him as Chief Executive Officer with no founder title, and Aerodrome's docs name no founder. Dromos calls itself the core contributing development company behind both exchanges and Aero, and it says many of its team members are not public figures.

Who is the Aerodrome Finance CEO?

Aerodrome is a protocol, and the CEO of the company that builds it is Alexander Cutler. Dromos Labs builds Aerodrome and Velodrome, and it merged the two into Aero in late October 2026.

Is there a deadline to upgrade AERO to Aero?

Aerodrome's guide sets none, and the one-for-one rate doesn't change with time. The 3-of-7 multisig that owns the migration contracts can still burn the unclaimed new AERO, with one call on Velodrome's side and a pause plus that call on Aerodrome's.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.