MakerDAO is now Sky, the $7 billion crypto lending platform launching new stablecoin and governance token
- The motivation behind the change is “how to scale decentralized finance (DeFi) to a massive scale,” as well as the development of decentralized stablecoins, Rune Christensen told CoinDesk in an interview.
- The new USDS stablecoin and SKY governance token will go live on September 18, along with a new DeFi application for interacting with the protocol. The protocol’s existing DAI and MKR tokens will continue to circulate, and users can voluntarily choose whether to redeem them.
- Immediately following the announcement, MKR prices surged by more than 4%.
- The changes are part of an ongoing overhaul of the protocol called Endgame.
MakerDAO, one of the earliest and largest decentralized finance lending platforms, has rebranded to “Sky” and launched a new token as part of its ongoing rebrand.
According to a press release published on Tuesday, the protocol, which holds $7 billion in assets, will also launch new versions of its $5 billion stablecoin (DAI) and governance token (MKR), named USDS stablecoin and SKY governance token, respectively.
DAI and MKR will continue to circulate unchanged, while the new token will exist in parallel. Token holders will be able to redeem DAI tokens for USDS at a 1:1 ratio, while each MKR token can be redeemed for 28,000 SKY tokens. The new token will be issued on September 18, and holders can voluntarily choose to keep the old tokens or redeem the new tokens.
MKR’s price immediately surged by more than 4% following the announcement and is up 2% over the past 24 hours, outperforming both bitcoin (BTC) and the broader market cryptocurrency benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20).
Sky and its token will exist in parallel with the old token (Sky)
“The fundamental factor is how to grow DeFi to a huge scale, as big as Tether, or even bigger,” MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen told CoinDesk.
Tether issues USDT with a market value of $116 billion, which is the largest stablecoin on the market.
Christensen led a major, multi-year overhaul of the protocol, known as “Endgame.” As part of that process, he first proposed plans to introduce “upgraded” versions of the stablecoin and governance token in a governance forum post in May 2023.
The protocol’s growth goals rely on offering native token rewards to USDS and SKY holders through the protocol’s new user interface, the Sky.money app, Christensen said.
However, the bonus accumulation feature will be restricted in certain jurisdictions including the US and the UK.
The reform also involves breaking up the platform into smaller, independent entities and giving them their own tokens. These organizations, earlier known as SubDAOs, will be named Stars as part of the rebranding.
The first of these entities will be Spark, a lending platform built on top of Maker/Sky.
But the transition will happen “in a few months, once the entire experience has been tested and refined,” Christensen said in an interview.
