---
title: "Sky (formerly MakerDAO)"
url: "https://caper.network/wiki/daos/stablecoins/sky-dao"
updated: 2026-09-07
license: CC-BY-4.0
license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Sky (formerly MakerDAO)

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Name** | Sky (formerly MakerDAO) |
| **Type** | Protocol DAO (stablecoin / lending) |
| **Governance token** | SKY (migrated from MKR at 1:24,000) |
| **Stablecoins** | USDS (formerly / alongside DAI) |
| **Founded** | MakerDAO 2015; rebranded to Sky on 27 August 2024 |
| **Notable for** | Created DAI, the first widely-used decentralized stablecoin; the multi-year "Endgame" restructuring into subDAOs ("Stars") |
| **Primary sources** | [sky.money](https://sky.money/), [forum.skyeco.com](https://forum.skyeco.com/), [governance portal](https://vote.makerdao.com/) |
| **Related** | [What is a DAO?](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/fundamentals/what-is-a-dao), [Uniswap](/wiki/daos/dexs/uniswap-dao), [ENS DAO](/wiki/daos/infrastructure/ens-dao) |

**Sky** — the protocol formerly known as **MakerDAO** — is one of the oldest and largest [DAOs](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/fundamentals/what-is-a-dao) in DeFi. It governs the issuance of decentralized, crypto-and-real-world-asset-collateralized stablecoins and is widely regarded as the original DeFi DAO, the project that proved a community could run a multi-billion-dollar monetary system through on-chain governance.

## DAI: the first decentralized stablecoin

MakerDAO launched **DAI** in 2017, the first widely-adopted stablecoin not backed by a centralized issuer's bank account but minted against on-chain collateral and held near $1 by an autonomous system of vaults, liquidations, and a governance-set stability fee. MKR holders governed every parameter — collateral types, fees, debt ceilings — making Maker the canonical demonstration of decentralized monetary governance. ([Sky / Maker documentation](https://docs.sky.money/))

## Endgame and the rebrand to Sky

In May 2022, co-founder Rune Christensen published **Endgame**, a multi-year plan to restructure the monolithic protocol into a modular network of semi-autonomous subDAOs. On 27 August 2024 the project rebranded from MakerDAO to **Sky**, introducing new tokens: the MKR governance token migrates to **SKY** at a 1:24,000 ratio, and DAI gains a sibling, **USDS**, that holders can optionally upgrade to. ([The Block](https://www.theblock.co/post/313235/makerdao-mkr-sky-dai-stablecoin-usds))

## The protocol today

By early 2026 the combined supply of DAI and USDS sits around $13 billion, with USDS having overtaken DAI in raw size. The collateral mix has shifted heavily toward **real-world assets** — roughly 40% short-term U.S. treasuries allocated through "Star" allocators, around a third USDC via the peg-stability module, and the balance in crypto — so that real-world-asset revenue now supplies the majority of protocol income, a near-complete inversion of its crypto-native origins. The Endgame "Stars" launch as subDAOs with their own tokens and governance; the first live Star, [Spark](https://spark.fi/) ([its own DAO page](/wiki/daos/lending/spark)) — a lending market built on Sky liquidity — has grown past $3 billion in deposits ([live figure on DeFiLlama](https://defillama.com/protocol/spark)). ([Sky governance forum](https://forum.skyeco.com/))

## Why it matters

Sky is the longest-running test of whether a DAO can manage a large, risk-bearing balance sheet — making it a continual reference point for [DAO treasury management](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/treasury/dao-treasury-management): diversification into yield-bearing real-world assets, governance-set rates, and the trade-off between decentralization and the operational discipline a multi-billion-dollar treasury demands.

## How Caper approaches this

Sky shows both the promise and the weight of a community-run treasury, and it is also the closest thing in this directory to a working precedent for how a [caper](/wiki/foundations/what-is-a-caper) executes — close enough that the two systems have landed on the same number.

**Sky's pipeline has two stages, and the second is a delay.** Executive voting in the Chief is continuous approval voting: SKY is locked behind candidate spells, and the spell holding the most weight — “the hat” — is the one that may be cast. The [Chief migrated to a SKY-denominated contract](https://forum.skyeco.com/t/technical-scope-of-the-chief-migration/26361) in the 15 May 2025 spell; read at [0x929d…a6f9](https://etherscan.io/address/0x929d9A1435662357F54AdcF64DcEE4d6b867a6f9) on 6 September 2026 the sitting hat carried **7,052,257,051 SKY** in approvals. Passing is not executing, though. A cast spell goes into the Governance Security Module and cannot act until the pause delay elapses — `delay()` on [MCD_PAUSE](https://etherscan.io/address/0xbE286431454714F511008713973d3B053A2d38f3) returns **172,800 seconds**, the 48 hours governance [voted for in 2023](https://forum.skyeco.com/t/poll-notice-increase-the-gsm-delay-to-48-hours/20241) — and in that gap holders can lift a different hat or, in extremis, trigger emergency shutdown.

**A caper's second stage is a window too, and it is not a delay.** A [caper proposal](/wiki/governance/proposals) first clears a ranked ballot, which is legislative only. Triggering the winning action then locks the caper's trailing TWAP as a baseline and opens the market window – its length is `PROPOSAL_WINDOW_SECONDS`, a logic constant set to drill tuning on the current Stokenet deployment – and the action [executes](/wiki/governance/execution) if and only if the TWAP measured across that window is at or above the baseline. Sky spends its 48 hours waiting for a challenge that has to be organised in SKY; a caper spends its window _measuring_, and the challenge is a trade anyone can make alone. Both are [optimistic governance](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/voting/optimistic-governance): a decision that stands unless stopped. They differ in who has standing to stop it — a rival coalition versus any seller — and therefore in what a quiet window means. Sky's silence is nobody organising; a caper's silence is nobody selling.

The rest is scale. A caper raises through an on-chain [bonding curve](/wiki/markets/raising-funds) into a vault no single party can spend, and members keep a direct claim on it at [exit](/wiki/foundations/leaving-a-caper) — a redemption right Sky answers only through the far heavier machinery of emergency shutdown. The Caper pages describe those mechanics without the subDAO complexity.

## References

- [Sky](https://sky.money/) — official site.
- [Sky Governance Forum](https://forum.skyeco.com/).
- [The Block](https://www.theblock.co/post/313235/makerdao-mkr-sky-dai-stablecoin-usds) — MakerDAO rebrands to Sky; DAI optionally upgradeable to USDS.