Sky, formerly Maker, launches USDS stablecoin on Solana

As a seasoned researcher who has closely followed the crypto landscape for years, I am always intrigued by the dynamic nature of this industry and the constant evolution it undergoes. The latest move by Sky (formerly Maker) to deploy its USDS stablecoin on Solana is indeed an interesting development, especially considering Solana’s growing DeFi ecosystem.


Previously known as Maker, the decentralized lending and borrowing platform Sky has released its USDS stablecoin onto the Solana network, aiming to capitalize on the expanding Decentralized Finance (DeFi) environment within this blockchain.

In a recent post on November 19th, Sky stated that their USUS is the initial significant decentralized finance (DeFi) stablecoin on the Solana network. This digital asset will pave the way for innovative methods of lending, borrowing, and trading across Solana’s leading DeFi platforms.

Today’s launch signifies the initial move in Sky’s plan to boost Solana’s Decentralized Finance (DeFi) liquidity and the total value locked within it. Sky mentioned further plans, subject to governance approval, to introduce their SkyLink cross-chain bridge for USDS and sUSDS – which are their stablecoin versions designed for savings purposes.

The digital currency known as USDS is essentially a new brand of the stablecoin Dai (DAI), designed to maintain an equivalent value to 1 U.S. dollar. Similarly, Sky underwent a rebrand from Maker in August, but due to some misunderstanding following the change, co-founder Rune Christensen suggested that it should revert back to its original name. However, four major investors or “whales” objected to this idea, so Sky retained its new name.

To encourage Solana users to adopt the newly named token, Sky is providing incentives for early adopters and stablecoin liquidity contributors across several Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms.

Users on Kamino Finance can look forward to receiving weekly rewards totaling $200,000 USD for providing liquidity in the USDC/USDS pair, as well as $100,000 USD worth of weekly rewards for supplying the stablecoin.

100,000 USD is up for grabs as rewards for providers of the stablecoin to Drift Protocol. Similarly, suppliers of the dollar-backed token to Save Finance can potentially earn a portion of the 400,000 USD in monthly rewards.

Sky’s team mentioned that the seamless operation of USDS can be achieved on Solana due to the native integration of the protocol through Wormhole’s Native Token Transfer (NTT).

Among stablecoins, USDS ranks as the third largest, boasting a market cap of $5.3 billion. This represents approximately 2.8% of the market, with Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) accounting for a combined 88%, holding the majority of the market share in this sector.

This year, the growth of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) on the Solana platform has been significant, with the total value locked rising an impressive 487% year-to-date, reaching approximately $8.34 billion, as reported by DefiLlama. Notably, Solana’s surge in popularity is largely attributed to memecoin speculation, given its speed and affordability when it comes to creating these digital tokens on the network through platforms like Pump.fun.

Previously known as Maker (MKR), the governance token has decreased by approximately 30% following its rebranding. The protocol encouraged its holders to swap their tokens for the newly introduced one, Sky (SKY).

The adoption rate has been rather gradual because the SKY governance token isn’t available for trading on exchange platforms at this time.

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2024-11-20 08:44