Aero Lite tops every DEX on Arc in fees two weeks after launch

Two weeks into life on Arc, Aero Lite has earned more in trading fees than every other decentralized exchange on the chain combined. It did that with about 20% of the network’s DEX total value locked.

Small pool, big earnings

Aero Lite is a lightweight version of the Aero protocol, built by Dromos Labs. It went live on September 16, 2026, the same day Arc opened its public mainnet.

The product is deliberately simple. It handles token swaps and runs Slipstream concentrated-liquidity pools, which were available from day one.

In a traditional DEX pool, deposits are spread across every possible price, from zero to infinity. Concentrated liquidity lets providers park their money in a narrow price band where trading actually happens. The same dollar does more work, and earns more fees, as long as the price stays inside the range.

Aero Lite now holds $1.88 million in TVL and has processed around $25 million in DEX volume on Arc. Cumulative fees have reached approximately $10,177.

The comparison that matters most is with Arc’s other DEXs, which include Uniswap. Aero Lite controls roughly a fifth of the chain’s DEX liquidity yet leads all of them on fees.

Why Arc, and why a Lite version

Arc is an EVM-compatible Layer-1 blockchain designed for stablecoin-native applications. Its focus areas are payments, foreign exchange and institutional transactions, and users pay gas fees in USDC rather than a volatile native token.

Since mainnet launch, lending protocols such as Morpho Blue and Aave V4 have dominated Arc’s TVL.

Aero Lite runs without veAERO, the vote-escrow revenue-sharing system used by the parent protocol, where token holders lock AERO to steer emissions and collect fees. Instead, Aero Lite sends most swap fees straight back to liquidity providers.

The full Aero protocol, which merges Aerodrome and Velodrome under the AERO token, is scheduled to launch across seven EVM chains, Arc among them, on October 21, 2026.

What this means for Aero, Arc and rival DEXs

There is a catch worth flagging. Concentrated liquidity amplifies returns when prices stay in range, but providers can stop earning entirely if the market moves outside their band. On a stablecoin-focused chain, where many pairs trade in tight ranges by design, that risk may be more manageable than on a typical DeFi network.

The key thing to watch is the transition from Lite to full. Once veAERO and the merged Aerodrome-Velodrome model arrive, fee distribution changes. Some revenue that currently goes to liquidity providers may be routed toward locked token holders instead.