Research note · Robinhood Chain

Stock-payout tokens on Robinhood Chain and the vampire-pool problem

Tokens like INDEX pay holders in stock tokens from a trading tax, but the tax can be skipped. Why fees collapsed after the summer, what the URC-5 standard changes, and what INDEX's November update showed.

INDEX fees$1.15M → $51KJul → Oct
Trading tax3-4%paid in stock tokens
Payout cycle36 hourssince Oct 29
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Research snapshot · 29 Oct and 3 Nov 2026

How these tokens work

INDEX, SHROOM and BUCKET charge a 3-4% tax on trades, and that tax buys stock tokens for holders. The tax is charged by a hook on one specific Uniswap v4 pool, not by the token itself, so anyone can open a pool without the hook and routers send trades wherever it is cheapest.

Why fees fell

Part of the decline is the meme cooldown on the chain, but bypassed volume is the second reason. INDEX shows the gap: $1.15M in fees in July, when most volume still went through the hook, against $51K in October.

The proposed fix: URC-5

URC-5 is a Uniswap standard from the STANDARD team. A token declares its official pool onchain, routers can read it, and in enforced mode the token blocks trades outside that pool. A token has to support it in its own contract, so for tokens that are already live the fix depends on the team.

The November update

INDEX's first update since 8 October restarted distributions on fixed 36-hour cycles and stopped payouts to LP pools. DefiLlama showed $0 in fees from 19 to 28 October and $23.1K after the restart. The team said a deeper fix for bypassed volume was in development, so the token was trading on the expectation of that fix more than on current revenue.

Updates since publication

  1. INDEX shipped its first update since Oct 8: payouts restarted, LP pools excluded, bypass fix in development.

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Sources & related reading

The main thesis of this piece is followed in the track record →

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