MakerDAO Rebrands To “Sky” and Schedules USDS Stablecoin Launch

One of DeFi’s largest and enduring protocols is gearing up for a major shift, with MakerDAO, the largest collateralized debt protocol, readying to launch new tokens next month.

On Aug. 27, MakerDAO rebranded to Sky and announced it will deploy its new stablecoin, USDS, and governance token, SKY, on Sept. 18. The rebranding marks a major milestone in MakerDAO’s ambitious and controversial “Endgame” overhaul.

“Sky represents the complete transformation of Maker, comprising all the knowledge the organization has reaped over the years,” Rune Christensen, the founder of MakerDAO told The Defiant. “It addresses the issue with Maker: that it wasn’t so approachable.”

Rebrand

Christensen said the Sky rebrand was designed to offer a simpler user experience.

The rebrand was accompanied by the launch of a new website and app that will provide a front-end interface for Sky from Sept. 18. Maker will also deploy its new SKY and USDS governance token and stablecoin next month.

Maker’s existing DAI stablecoin and MKR governance token will remain in existence, with users able to upgrade their tokens to USDS and SKY voluntarily. Each MKR token can be upgraded to 24,000 SKY tokens, while DAI will convert to USDS on a one-to-one basis. Maker also plans to launch a farm emitting SKY in the future.

The new front-end interface facilitates access to new features including “token activation rewards” and the Sky Savings Rate (SSR).

To incentivize usage, Sky will offer double SSR yields for the first month. Although the protocol didn’t state the annual percentage yield (APY) offered through the SSR, the DAI Savings Rate currently sits at 6%.

DAI is currently the third largest stablecoin with a market cap of $5.34 billion. MKR is the 53rd-largest cryptocurrency with a $1.93 billion market cap. With MRK changing hands for more than $2,000 per token, the SKY redenomination is intended to make the asset appear more approachable to smaller investors.

In May, Christensen said Maker will launch two new stablecoins as part of its Endgame rollout.

Sky Stars

Maker also plans to rebrand its forthcoming metaDAO ecosystem, with subDAOs now set to be called “Sky Stars” moving forward.

Stars comprise independent decentralized projects performing specialized operations within the MakerDAO ecosystem. Stars will have their own business model, token, governance, and treasury. Users will be able to farm tokens issued by Stars using USDS.

“Stars are the core pillar of scaling,” he said. “Think of them like L2s for governance, allowing parallel communities to specialize in different areas. Stars must be allowed to fail, which enables experimentation with riskier ideas.”

The first Sky Star is Spark, the DAI-focused lending protocol. Following the rebrand, Spark’s SparkLend protocol will allow users to supply crypto as collateral to borrow USDS.

Read More: MKR Rallies After Grayscale MakerDAO Trust Launch