#474: Alexander Cutler, Core Contributor at Aerodrome, on Becoming The Largest DEX on Base and The Future of DeFi

Alexander Cutler is a Core Contributor at Aerodrome Finance, the largest decentralised exchange on Base with over $600m TVL. He also serves on the core team at Velodrome Finance, a leading decentralised exchange on the Optimism network. Before entering decentralised finance, Alex built experience across politics, technology, and consulting. His work is driven by a belief in democratising access to liquidity, governance, and ownership opportunities. 

In this conversation, we discuss:
- How Aerodrome started 
- Bootstrapping growth to become the largest DEX on Base without VC funding 
- Community ownership and governance through veAERO 
- What does the Syndicate community-first launch on Aerodrome signal for the future of token launches 
- DEXs vs CEXs 
- The distribution rails of the onchain economy 
- The future of DeFi 
- Liquidity fragmentation is one of the biggest challenges in DeFi 
- Long-term ambition for Aerodrome 
- The case for DeFi on Base and why it’s a unique ecosystem 
- DeFi maturing beyond speculation toward sustainable financial infrastructure 

Aerodrome
Website: aerodrome.finance
X: @AerodromeFi
Discord: discord.gg/aerodrome

Alexander Cutler
X: @wagmiAlexander

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