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USDT$0.999751▼ 0.0%·
BNB$787.96▼ 0.5%·
XRP$1.51▲ 1.1%·
USDC$0.999898▼ 0.0%·
SOL$120.76▼ 0.1%·
TRX$0.335919▲ 0.3%·
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ZEC$1,328.00▲ 0.6%·
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DOGE$0.096493▲ 3.5%·
LINK$14.16▲ 0.8%·
XMR$544.93▼ 1.4%·
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8.0/10
DeFi Protocols

MakerDAO / Sky

Strongranked 3 of 4 in defi protocols◆ Sources checked · 27 Sept 2026

The oldest significant protocol in DeFi and the one that has survived the most; it renamed itself Sky in August 2024. Black Thursday in March 2020 produced real bad debt, which was recapitalised through a public MKR auction — a stress test nothing else in this table has undergone at that severity. Vault owners who lost collateral in zero-bid auctions were not compensated.

Best for: The longest continuous operating record of any DeFi protocol

Company file: Sky, owners, incidents →

How this score was reached

8.0 is the weighted average of the five pillar findings below. Does the job well with no material unresolved concerns.

Custody & Security35%
8.0

Non-custodial with over-collateralised positions. Governance holds substantial authority over collateral types and parameters, and the real-world asset book run by Stars such as Grove and Obex adds off-chain counterparties.

Cost & Fee Transparency15%
7.8

Stability fees are set transparently on-chain through a public governance process.

Regulation & Legal Standing5%
6.8

Unlicensed, with the longest governance track record in DeFi and increasing real-world regulatory surface via its asset exposure. No company issues USDS; the Maker Foundation wound down in 2021.

Performance & Reliability35%
8.4

Survived Black Thursday with the roughly $4.5M DAI deficit recapitalised through MKR debt auctions. No exploit of the core contracts in 2025 or 2026.

Access & Support10%
7.4

Extensive documentation, though the move to Sky, USDS, SKY and the Star units has made the current model harder to follow than it used to be.

Strengths

  • The longest continuous operating record in DeFi, across every cycle
  • Recapitalised in public after Black Thursday rather than socialising the loss to DAI holders
  • Governance process has functioned under genuine stress

Against it

  • Governance holds wide authority over collateral and parameters, and SKY voting is concentrated
  • Real-world asset exposure adds counterparties that cannot be verified on-chain
  • The 2024 rebrand and Star structure have reduced clarity about the current model

It has actually been tested

On Black Thursday in March 2020, Maker took real bad debt when the network congested and liquidation auctions cleared at zero. It covered the roughly $4.5M DAI deficit by minting and auctioning MKR in public rather than passing the loss to DAI holders. Vault owners whose collateral went for nothing were not compensated; governance voted against it. No other protocol in this table has sat that severe an exam.

The protocol renamed itself Sky in August 2024 and now issues USDS alongside DAI. The current concern is different: a real-world credit book run by semi-independent Stars adds off-chain counterparties governance cannot verify, and the restructuring has made the model harder to follow than it was.

Frequently asked questions

What happened to MakerDAO on Black Thursday?+

Ethereum congestion meant liquidation auctions cleared at zero, leaving the system undercollateralised by about $4.5M. Maker auctioned newly minted MKR publicly to recapitalise, so DAI holders lost nothing; vault owners who lost excess collateral were not compensated. The auction system was redesigned in 2021 so a zero bid can no longer win.

Is DAI still decentralised?+

Less than it was. A large share of collateral is now USDC and tokenised off-chain credit, which reintroduces the counterparty risk the design was created to avoid. It is the main criticism of the current model.

What are real-world assets in Maker?+

Off-chain instruments such as short-dated Treasuries and, under Sky, credit funds run by Stars such as Grove, which launched with $1bn in tokenised AAA CLOs in June 2025. They improve yield and add counterparties that cannot be verified on-chain.

Assessed by

Emily Volker

By Emily Volker

Editor-in-Chief · September 27, 2026

◆ Disclosure

CoinRadar Daily is a non-commercial project. We have no commercial relationship with MakerDAO / Sky, earn nothing from any link on this page, and carry no advertising or sponsorship anywhere on the site. Findings rest on public sources; we did not open an account or transact.

Rubric v2.0How we score →

The rest of the defi protocols table

  1. 01Uniswap ProtocolPool contracts with no admin key over funds, at the largest scale8.9
  2. 02Lido ProtocolScale and integration, with the concentration question attached8.3
  3. 03MakerDAO / Sky — you are hereThe longest continuous operating record of any DeFi protocol8.0
  4. 04Aave ProtocolActively risk-managed lending, if you check which collateral others may post7.9
Full defi protocolscomparison →

Related tables

How we score →

Independent, rubric-scored tables for the services behind this story.