Index Coop

Index Coop builds structured DeFi products — tokenized leverage strategies and yield positions — that manage themselves on-chain so holders never have to monitor collateral ratios or risk forced liquidation.

What Index Coop Is

Founded in October 2020, Index Coop is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that designs, deploys, and maintains on-chain structured products. Its core thesis is that most retail crypto traders want leveraged or yield-enhanced exposure to crypto assets but lack the time or sophistication to manage collateralized debt positions manually. Index Coop packages those strategies as standard ERC-20 tokens — buy them, hold them, and the protocol handles everything else automatically.

The protocol's flagship line is its Leverage Suite, which offers 2x, 3x, and inverse (-1x) exposure to assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Sui. These tokens have operated without a single liquidation since launch — a run spanning more than four years through events including the FTX collapse and numerous high-volatility periods.

Core Mechanism: SetTokens and Automated Rebalancing

Every Index Coop product is a SetToken: an ERC-20 wrapper built on Set Protocol that holds a defined basket of positions in DeFi lending markets. For leverage tokens, the mechanism works as follows:

Collateral deposit: The token holds a spot asset (e.g., ETH or wBTC) as collateral in a lending market such as Aave v3 or Morpho.

Borrow and loop: Stablecoins are borrowed against that collateral, then swapped for more of the underlying asset and re-deposited, creating compounded leverage without requiring a futures contract or perpetual position.

Automated rebalancing: Keeper bots continuously monitor each token's actual leverage ratio against its target. When market moves push the ratio outside a defined safe band, the protocol automatically adjusts positions via DEX swaps — primarily Uniswap v3 — to restore the target ratio.

Ripcord safeguard: If leverage ratios exceed safety thresholds during extreme volatility, a public "Ripcord" function allows anyone to trigger emergency deleveraging. Callers receive an ETH reward (1 ETH on Ethereum mainnet, 0.25 ETH on Arbitrum or Base) as an incentive to keep the system safe even without Index Coop intervention.

Because leverage is sourced from DeFi lending markets rather than perpetual futures, the cost of carry is typically far lower than the funding rates on centralized or decentralized perpetuals. Index Coop cites example cost differentials where their 3x BTC token carries roughly 10% annualized cost of carry versus 63% perpetual funding rates for equivalent exposure.

Product Suite

Leverage Tokens are the current core offering. Available variants include ETH2x, ETH3x, BTC2x, BTC3x, ETH2xBTC (ETH leveraged vs BTC), BTC2xETH, SOL2x, SUI2x, and their corresponding inverse tokens. Each maintains a consistent leverage multiple through automated rebalancing.

Smart Loops apply the same looping mechanism to yield generation rather than directional leverage. The wstETH15x token uses Morpho to compound liquid staking returns at up to 15x, targeting real yield rather than speculative price exposure.

hyETH (High Yield ETH Index) is a yield-focused product that routes ETH through Gauntlet-managed Morpho vaults to generate enhanced returns on top of baseline staking yields.

icETH (Interest Compounding ETH) is an older liquid staking amplifier using Aave v2, still maintained but considered a legacy product.

Legacy products including DPI (DeFi Pulse Index), MVI (Metaverse Index), and BED (Bankless ETH/BTC/DeFi) have been hibernated or discontinued as Index Coop pivoted toward leverage and yield as its primary focus.

Supported Chains

Index Coop products are deployed on Ethereum mainnet, Arbitrum, and Base. Polygon was an early deployment target but was discontinued in December 2022. The DAO evaluates new chain deployments based on DeFi liquidity depth, available lending market infrastructure, and trading demand.

Security and Audits

The protocol has completed more than eight security audits across its contract stack. Smart contracts are open-source and the protocol runs an active bug bounty program. The leverage token architecture's most meaningful security signal is its track record: no forced liquidations in over four years of continuous operation across multiple market crashes, including periods where competing perpetual protocols saw mass liquidation cascades.

Governance and the INDEX Token

Index Coop is governed by holders of the INDEX token, which confers voting rights on DAO proposals (called Index Improvement Proposals, or IIPs). IIPs cover product launches, parameter changes, treasury allocations, and protocol integrations. The INDEX token currently has no other programmatic utility, and its governance role is intentionally broad — the DAO can vote to add additional utility or mechanisms at any time.

Core contributors form a small paid team supported by treasury funds; the broader community of token holders participates in governance and community building.

Integrations and Distribution

Index Coop leverage tokens are accessible through MetaMask Web, where they appear as a native product offering within the wallet interface. This integration gives the protocol distribution to MetaMask's user base without requiring users to navigate to a separate DeFi application. Additional integrations span CeFi applications and aggregator platforms.

SOL Exposure

Index Coop's SOL2x token offers two-times leveraged exposure to Solana's price, built on EVM infrastructure and using the same SetToken and lending-market mechanism as its other leverage products. This gives traders on Ethereum, Arbitrum, or Base access to SOL price movements with automated liquidation protection — a structured alternative to leveraged SOL perpetuals on centralized or decentralized exchanges.

Context

Index Coop is an EVM-native protocol, not a Solana-native deployment. Its products run on Ethereum mainnet, Arbitrum, and Base. Where it intersects with the Solana ecosystem is through asset exposure: the SOL2x leverage token and similar products let traders gain leveraged SOL price exposure through on-chain structured products without touching the Solana network directly.