In a move to bolster the usage and adoption of its decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform, MakerDAO is undergoing a significant rebranding. The lending protocol, founded by Rune Christensen in 2014, will now be known as ‘Sky’, a shift aimed at appealing to a wider user base.
MakerDAO Reinvents Itself As ‘Sky’
MakerDAO was one of the earliest applications in the DeFi space, allowing users to trade, lend, and borrow digital assets directly without traditional financial intermediaries.
As Bloomberg reports, the platform’s success in the early days of crypto earned it a loyal following among the industry’s most seasoned participants, the so-called “OGs” or “original gangsters.”
However, like many DeFi projects, MakerDAO has faced challenges in recent years, with its total value locked (TVL) peaking at $20 billion in 2021 before declining in the wake of the broader crypto market downturn.
In addition, the market capitalization of its DAI stablecoin, a key platform component, dropped from its highs of around $10 billion earlier this year.
Christensen acknowledged that while MakerDAO had found “solid footing” within the core crypto community, the real challenge was “how to become more appealing and available to the mass market.” This realization has led to the decision to rebrand the platform as Sky.
New Reward-Bearing Tokens
According to Bloomberg, Sky will launch two new tokens on September 18 as part of the rebranding effort. Existing holders of MakerDAO’s MKR and DAI tokens can upgrade to the new upcoming USDS and SKY tokens, which will offer reward-based incentives for simply holding the assets within the Sky ecosystem.
The new Sky.money app, also set to debut on September 18th, will be the primary platform for accessing these new tokens and the associated rewards.
Christensen emphasized that the existing MKR and DAI tokens will remain in circulation, allowing users to continue using them if they prefer, as the new tokens are primarily targeted at attracting new users to the platform.
The rebranding initiative is part of MakerDAO’s Endgame Plan, a roadmap ratified in 2022 that aims to increase the protocol’s resilience and drive accelerated growth.
Christensen expressed the hope that the Sky rebrand will help DeFi “stop feeling like crypto and start feeling like finance got a lot better,” emphasizing the focus on highlighting the benefits and ease of use over the “constraints that have historically deterred mainstream adoption.”
At the time of writing, MKR is trading at $2,123 following the news of the protocol’s rebranding, continuing a 10% surge in the past week. This outperforms the largest cryptocurrencies on the market, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which recorded losses in the same period.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com