The short answerMaker, now Sky, has issued a stablecoin against crypto collateral since 2017 and survived Black Thursday, the 2022 credit collapse and the 2023 banking scare. Its growing real-world asset exposure trades protocol risk for counterparty risk, and the rebrand has made governance harder to follow rather than easier.
Best forBorrowing against blue-chip collateral at scale
Collateral & liquidation policyweight 25%
8.5avg 7.7
Oracle designweight 20%
9.0avg 7.6
Loss recordweight 20%
8.0avg 7.4
Rate qualityweight 15%
8.0avg 7.7
Governance & transparencyweight 10%
7.5avg 7.2
Coverageweight 10%
8.0avg 7.1
this service category average across 15Score = Σ mark × weight. Recommendable to most readers, with stated caveats. Methodology.
| Criterion | Mark | What we found | Source | Checked |
|---|
| Collateral & liquidation policy | 8.5 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
| Oracle design | 9.0 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
| Loss record | 8.0 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
| Rate quality | 8.0 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
| Governance & transparency | 7.5 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
| Coverage | 8.0 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
What we liked, and what fell short
Liked- Eight years of continuous operation through multiple crashes
- Robust oracle security module with delayed price feeds
- Enormous liquidity for large borrowers
Fell short- March 2020 liquidation failure left roughly $8m of bad debt
- Growing real-world asset exposure introduces off-chain counterparty risk
Why the marks landed where they did
Maker built the mechanism everything else copied: lock collateral, mint a stablecoin against it, pay a stability fee, get liquidated if the ratio falls. Eight years later DAI has held its peg through every crisis the sector has produced, which is the strongest evidence any protocol in this category can offer.
Black Thursday and what was fixed
In March 2020 network congestion and a collapsing ETH price broke the liquidation auction: bidders could not get transactions through, and some vaults were seized for effectively nothing, leaving around $8m of bad debt. Maker recapitalised through a governance-run MKR auction and rebuilt the liquidation system with circuit breakers and a redesigned auction mechanism. It is the clearest example in DeFi of a protocol failing, being fixed, and the fix holding.
The oracle security module
Prices are delayed by an hour before taking effect, which gives governance time to react to a manipulated feed. It costs precision and it makes flash-loan oracle attacks — the most common vector against lending protocols — structurally difficult.
The real-world asset question
A large share of backing now sits in treasury exposure, real-world credit and off-chain arrangements whose counterparties users cannot inspect. That is where the yield comes from and it is a different risk from on-chain over-collateralisation. Anyone treating DAI or USDS as fully verifiable on-chain collateral should look at the current composition first.
Who should use it
Borrowers wanting deep liquidity against blue-chip collateral at scale, and users who want a stablecoin with the longest peg record in the sector — while understanding what now backs it.
FAQ
What happened on Black Thursday?+
In March 2020, network congestion prevented liquidation bidders from participating and some vaults were seized for near zero, leaving about $8m of bad debt. Maker recapitalised through an MKR auction and rebuilt the liquidation system.
What is the oracle security module?+
A one-hour delay on price updates, giving governance time to react to manipulated feeds. It makes flash-loan oracle attacks structurally difficult.
Is DAI still backed by crypto?+
Partly. A significant share of backing is now treasury and real-world credit exposure held through off-chain counterparties, which cannot be verified on-chain.
What changed with the Sky rebrand?+
New tokens (USDS and SKY alongside DAI and MKR) and a restructured governance model, which has made following protocol decisions harder rather than simpler.
