In a transfer to bolster the utilization and adoption of its decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform, MakerDAO is present process a major rebranding. The lending protocol, based by Rune Christensen in 2014, will now be generally known as ‘Sky’, a shift geared toward interesting to a wider consumer base.
MakerDAO Reinvents Itself As ‘Sky’
MakerDAO was one of many earliest functions within the DeFi house, permitting customers to commerce, lend, and borrow digital property immediately with out conventional monetary intermediaries.
As Bloomberg reviews, the platform’s success within the early days of crypto earned it a loyal following among the many trade’s most seasoned contributors, the so-called “OGs” or “unique gangsters.”
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Nevertheless, like many DeFi tasks, MakerDAO has confronted challenges in recent times, with its complete worth locked (TVL) peaking at $20 billion in 2021 earlier than declining within the wake of the broader crypto market downturn.
As well as, the market capitalization of its DAI stablecoin, a key platform part, dropped from its highs of round $10 billion earlier this 12 months.
Christensen acknowledged that whereas MakerDAO had discovered “stable footing” inside the core crypto neighborhood, the actual problem was “ grow to be extra interesting and accessible to the mass market.” This realization has led to the choice to rebrand the platform as Sky.
New Reward-Bearing Tokens
In response to Bloomberg, Sky will launch two new tokens on September 18 as a part of the rebranding effort. Present holders of MakerDAO’s MKR and DAI tokens can improve to the brand new upcoming USDS and SKY tokens, which is able to supply reward-based incentives for merely holding the property inside the Sky ecosystem.
The brand new Sky.cash app, additionally set to debut on September 18th, would be the major platform for accessing these new tokens and the related rewards.
Christensen emphasised that the prevailing MKR and DAI tokens will stay in circulation, permitting customers to proceed utilizing them if they like, as the brand new tokens are primarily focused at attracting new customers to the platform.
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The rebranding initiative is a part of MakerDAO’s Endgame Plan, a roadmap ratified in 2022 that goals to extend the protocol’s resilience and drive accelerated progress.
Christensen expressed the hope that the Sky rebrand will assist DeFi “cease feeling like crypto and begin feeling like finance received so much higher,” emphasizing the give attention to highlighting the advantages and ease of use over the “constraints which have traditionally deterred mainstream adoption.”
On the time of writing, MKR is buying and selling at $2,123 following the information of the protocol’s rebranding, persevering with a ten% surge up to now week. This outperforms the biggest cryptocurrencies available on the market, comparable to Bitcoin and Ethereum, which recorded losses in the identical interval.
Featured picture from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com