Sky (MakerDAO)

Decentralized protocol issuing USDS (formerly DAI), the longest-running crypto-collateralized stablecoin, following the Sky rebrand in 2024. Rebranded from MakerDAO to Sky in 2024. USDS and DAI have multi-billion market cap. Pioneered decentralized stablecoin model since 2017.

DAI/USDS is the original decentralized stablecoin and remains a core DeFi primitive—its Endgame rebrand to Sky shows how decentralized issuers are evolving to compete with regulated stablecoins.

sky.money Stablecoin Issuersprivate

At a glance

Total raised

$34M

last round growth

Headcount

null

approximate · public range

Headquarters

—

Founded

2014

12 years active

Status

Private

Stablecoin Issuers

Subsector

Stablecoin Issuers

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Funding history

Total raised

$34M

Rounds tracked

Latest stage

Growth

Date	Stage	Amount	Valuation	Lead investors
Dec 1, 2019	Growth	$7M	—	ParaFi Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures
Sep 24, 2018	Series A	$15M	—	Andreessen Horowitz
Dec 16, 2017	Seed	$12M	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital

Founder backgrounds

Rune Christensen

Co-Founder

A Dane who discovered Bitcoin in 2011 and began mining in his dorm room, Christensen studied international business at the University of Copenhagen before leaving to pursue crypto full-time. He founded a peer-to-peer recruitment marketplace, but MakerDAO — which he co-founded in 2014 and launched the DAI stablecoin from in 2017 — became his defining venture. DAI was the first decentralized, crypto-collateralized stablecoin, and Christensen stewarded it through bear markets, a 2020 flash-crash, and the 2022 crypto credit crisis. In 2024 he oversaw the rebrand to Sky, with DAI becoming USDS. He wrote the "Endgame Plan," a multi-year governance overhaul to scale the protocol beyond the limits of its original design. He has remained the project's most enduring public face for over a decade — an unusually long tenure for a DeFi founder.

AI bull / bear

Bull case

The USDS/DAI ecosystem has survived multiple crypto winters while dozens of algorithmic stablecoins collapsed, building an irreplaceable trust moat since 2017. That longevity translates directly into DeFi infrastructure lock-in—USDS and DAI are embedded across lending protocols, DEXs, and yield aggregators that cannot easily re-platform. The Endgame rebrand signals ambition beyond survival: Sky is building a full-stack ecosystem with native yield, governance tokens, and sub-DAOs that could onboard millions of users who find USDC and USDT too exposed to centralized choke points. With $34M raised from ParaFi, Bain Capital Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures, and a multi-billion dollar market cap, Sky has the treasury depth to fund this transition. The window is widening as regulators squeeze centralized issuers on reserve composition and sanctions compliance, pushing risk-conscious users toward a battle-tested decentralized alternative that has already proven it can hold its peg through extreme volatility.

Bear case

Sky's DAI lineage is under existential threat from two fronts. On the regulatory side, stablecoin legislation in the US and EU increasingly mandates reserve transparency and licensing standards that a DAO-governed protocol cannot easily meet—and DAI's historical reliance on USDC collateral means it inherits Circle's regulatory exposure anyway. On the competitive side, Ethena's USDe has surged past $3 billion by offering delta-neutral yield that DAI's savings rate cannot match, while PayPal's PYUSD and Ripple's RLUSD bring distribution networks no DAO can replicate. The Endgame rebrand has fragmented the community, with purists questioning whether Sky is abandoning the decentralized ethos that made DAI distinctive. The last funding round was a $7 million growth raise in December 2019—five years without fresh institutional backing raises questions about whether VCs see a path to exit. Without a credible yield advantage or regulatory clarity, Sky risks becoming a shrinking legacy protocol in a market moving toward compliance-native stablecoins.

Generated by deepseek-v4-pro · May 2, 2026Refreshes quarterly · see disclosures

In the news

Sky (MakerDAO) · last 30 days

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Leadership

Rune Christensen

Co-Founder

—

Products

USDS
A decentralized, over-collateralized stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. Formerly known as DAI, USDS is the longest-running crypto-collateralized stablecoin in the market. Users lock eligible crypto assets (like ETH, stETH, and other approved collateral) into Maker Vaults to generate USDS, which maintains its peg through a system of autonomous feedback mechanisms, including the Sky Savings Rate and liquidation penalties. It serves as a stable medium of exchange and store of value across DeFi applications.
SKY
The governance token of the Sky ecosystem, formerly known as MKR. SKY holders participate in decentralized governance of the Maker Protocol, voting on critical decisions such as collateral types, risk parameters, stability fees, and protocol upgrades. SKY also accumulates fees generated by the protocol's operations. The token transitioned from MKR to SKY as part of the 2024 Sky rebrand, with a conversion mechanism between the two token types.
Sky Savings Rate
A yield-bearing savings product integrated directly into the Maker Protocol. Users can deposit USDS into the Sky Savings Rate to earn a variable yield generated from protocol fees, including stability fees and liquidation penalties from collateralized positions. The SSR provides a native, trust-minimized way for users to earn yield on their stablecoins without relying on external lending platforms, serving as both a savings tool and a key monetary policy lever for maintaining the USDS peg.
Spark Protocol
A lending and borrowing market built on top of the Maker Protocol, offering users the ability to supply and borrow assets with competitive rates. Spark leverages Maker's deep liquidity to provide efficient lending markets, including a free DAI/USDS borrowing experience. It integrates with the Sky ecosystem to offer seamless access to the Sky Savings Rate and other protocol features, serving as the primary DeFi lending front-end for the Maker ecosystem.

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