# Welcome to The Index Coop.

### What is the Index Coop?

[The Index Coop was launched as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) by Set Labs](https://medium.com/indexcoop/introducing-the-index-cooperative-a4eaaf0bcfe2) on October 6th, 2020.

The Index Coop has evolved significantly since its inception. Today, we are made up of a small group of core contributors and a larger community of token holders and supporters. As a DAO we work on the cutting edge of decentralised finance, leveraging our decentralised network for contributors to build simple, accessible, and secure onchain structured DeFi products.

### INDEX Token 

The INDEX Token is a governance token used for voting on proposals for the DAO. These proposals can cover almost anything, including new product launches, changes to existing products, treasury allocation decisions, third-party protocol governance, and more. You can find more information about the INDEX token on the page below:

{% content-ref url="resources/governance/the-index-token" %}
[the-index-token](https://docs.indexcoop.com/index-coop-community-handbook/resources/governance/the-index-token)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% hint style="info" %}
Currently, there is no utility for INDEX tokens outside of the DAO governance. However, it is ultimately up to INDEX holders to determine additional utility and value accrual mechanisms for the token.
{% endhint %}