What is Values?
Values DAO is a community that owns an index of the on-chain market. One token — $VALUES — holds a diversified, capitalization-weighted basket of leading digital assets. These docs explain how it works. Every term is defined where it first appears; no prior DeFi experience is needed.
The token
$VALUES is a token you hold in your own wallet. Owning it means owning a share of the whole basket — dozens of assets in one position, with no custodian in between. This is called self-custody: your keys, your token, your basket.
The basket
The basket is a curated selection of leading on-chain assets, weighted by market capitalization — larger assets carry more weight. Weights rebalance on a fixed quarterly schedule, so the basket keeps tracking the market without anyone trading day to day.
The DAO
The rules of the index — what enters the basket, how it is weighted, when it rebalances — were decided by the community of token holders. This organization is Values DAO. Future decisions and every rebalance is recorded on-chain, where anyone can verify it.
The risks, plainly
Digital assets are volatile. The value of $VALUES can fall as well as rise, and you can lose the money you put in. Diversification reduces single-asset risk; it does not remove market risk. Nothing in these docs is financial advice.