the launch of the stablecoin USDS

MakerDAO, historic DeFi project, has just completed its rebranding to Sky, anticipating the launch of the stablecoin USDS in September.

The cryptographic protocol, which boasts a TVL of 4.18 billion dollars, changes its name in line with the “Endgame” plan and launches a new website.

All MKR tokens can be converted into SKY at the total discretion of the users, while DAI will become USDS.

Let’s see what this clear change entails and what awaits us from here on out.

The DeFi project MakerDAO changes its name to Sky

The famous DeFi protocol MakerDAO has officially changed its name to Sky, awaiting the completion of the distribution of the stablecoin USDS in September.

The announcement comes from the project itself with a post on X dated August 27, outlining all the changes previously hinted at in March of this year.

This rebranding process is part of the ambitious plan “Endgame”, presented a few months ago by Rune Christensen, founder of MakerDAO.

The goal is to transform the protocol into a more decentralized, resilient, and user-friendly ecosystem.

In addition to the launch of a new website with a cleaner and more intuitive front-end for the end user, MakerDAO is making a radical change.

In fact, the governance token of the MKR protocol officially becomes SKY, with the holders who can, however, decide whether to execute the switch.

Each MKR token can be upgraded to 24,000 SKY tokens, while DAI will convert to USDS at a 1:1 ratio starting from September 18.

Source: https://sky.money/

Obviously, it is likely that the majority of MKR tokens will be converted into SKY given the advantages on the yield side and the incentives of liquidity.

Already now Maker DA plans to launch a farming campaign with activation token rewards and Sky Savings Rate (SSR).

At the moment SKY is not yet available on the market, but it will presumably be introduced as early as next month in conjunction with the debut of the stablecoin.

Rune Christensen, regarding this major change, reported the following in a recent interview:

“Sky represents the complete transformation of Maker, encompassing all the knowledge that the organization has gathered over the years”

The transition to Sky also affects the Maker SubDAOs

The rebranding of MakerDAO to Sky that precedes the launch of the stablecoin USDS, has implications also for the so-called “Maker SubDAOs”.

For those who do not know, we are talking about independent protocol units that operate within MakerDAO, the most famous of which is the lending platform Spark.

With the Endgame plan these SubDAOs officially become “Sky Stars ”.

Spark, which has a TVL of 2.4 billion dollars, is now integrated as the first “Stars” in the new ecosystem called Sky.

These Stars include various independent decentralized projects that perform specialized operations within the MakerDAO ecosystem.

Everyone  will have their own business model, token, governance, and treasury. Users will be able to farm tokens issued by Stars using USDS.

Spark, for example, will allow users to provide crypto as collateral to take out a loan in USDS.

The founder of MakerDAO described the Sky Stars as a fundamental element of the change:

“The Stars are the main pillar of downsizing. Think of them as L2 for governance, allowing parallel communities to specialize in different areas. The stars must be able to fail, which allows for the experimentation of riskier ideas.”

It should be noted that in the Endgame plans it is not certain that there will be an initial restart on Ethereum. MakerDAO had long declared its intention to build on Solana, without, however, concluding any operational plan.

The same statements by the project’s founder had prompted Vitalik Buterin to liquidate over half a million MKT tokens at that juncture.

The stablecoin DAI will become USDS in September but something will change

The transition of MakerDAO to Sky, as mentioned, involves the launch of the stablecoin USDS which from September 18 will replace DAI.

We remind you that this latest stable currency is currently the third largest in its category in terms of capitalization, with a market of 5.34 billion dollars.

It is also the 18th largest cryptocurrency in the broader cryptographic sector, with a higher ranking position than the governance token MKR.

DAI will be converted at a 1:1 ratio with the new USDS, on which users will be able to enjoy double SSR yields in the first month of launch.

Currently MakerDAO has not revealed the annual percentage yield (APY) of the incentive campaign, but it is estimated that the reward will be around 6%.

We remind you that DAI, as well as MKR, will remain operational and it will be up to the users themselves to decide whether or not to carry out the migration.

Beyond the economic incentives and rebranding, it is necessary to highlight that according to what was reported by Wu Blockchain, there will be epochal changes.

The launch of the Sky protocol indeed implies new functions for the stablecoin USDS, which changes significantly compared to DAI.

According to the words of Sam MacPherson, CEO of Spark Protocol, USDS will indeed have a freezing function similar to that of Tether USDT.

The stablecoin di Sky non sarà più decentralizzata ma sarà controllata arbitrariamente dalla Fondazione ed avrà anche un blocco VPN per l’accesso al front-end.

The tweet was recently deleted by Mcpherson, so there may be new updates for this very important detail.

Probably the choice to introduce a potential form of censorship with the “freezing” stems from MakerDAO’s desire to comply with the European regulatory framework MiCa.
This compliance could open the doors to numerous institutional investments for the project.

Other strategic rebranding in the crypto world after MakerDAO

Besides MakerDAO changing its name to Sky by introducing the new stablecoin USDS, there are also other cryptographic projects that are undergoing rebranding.

First among all Polygon, which will soon change the ticker of its token MATIC to POL, as part of the roadmap towards version 2.0 of the network

The Polygon team has provided all the necessary information and all the dedicated portals to accompany users in the migration, which will take place on Ethereum on September 4th.

Same fate for the famous DeFi project Fantom, which with the rebranding to Sonic, will lead its cryptocurrency FTM to change its name to “S”.

To face this epochal change, the new Sonic Foundation has organized an airdrop campaign with 190.5 million S tokens up for grabs.

The initiative should push new staking capital into the blockchain infrastructure.

Finally, the trio of artificial intelligence projects FET, AGIX, and OCEAN will soon merge into ASI, creating a new cryptographic collective.

The so-called “Artificial Superintelligence Alliance” has become operational just a few days ago, after months of waiting by the community who can finally migrate their tokens.

That of MakerDAO is therefore not the first rebranding of 2024, with Sky and the stablecoin USDS ready to follow in the footsteps of the other cryptographic projects.

All these phases of rebranding leave contrasting thoughts on the horizon: although these initiatives are indeed synonymous with innovation and new potential interest, they imply an underlying problem.

Often those who in fact carry out a rebranding do so because their business no longer works or needs a breath of fresh air.

Many experts in the crypto community are expressing their dissent towards top projects in the DeFi world that change their name and inaugurate a new governance token chart.

By doing so, they publicly eliminate any negative price action crushed by the sale of the teams and the inefficiency of the resource, pressing the “restart” button and starting the game again.