DAI (DAI) Reseña

What is DAI, and where does it stand in 2026?

DAI is one of the earliest decentralized dollar stablecoins, launched by MakerDAO in December 2017 and now part of Sky Protocol. It has no issuer: smart contracts mint it when users borrow against collateral. The DAI stablecoin still had about 4.7 billion tokens outstanding on 16 October 2026, including those in its savings contract, but Sky now treats it as the legacy version of USDS, and big exchanges have been dropping it.

That leaves DAI in an odd spot. It is still one of the largest stablecoins, ranked fourth by DefiLlama's count on 16 October 2026, narrowly ahead of USDe, and, unlike USDT and USDC (which can be frozen) or USDS (which can be upgraded), its contract cannot be frozen, paused or upgraded by anyone.

It also pays a lower savings rate than USDS, trades on fewer venues every year and sits outside US and EU stablecoin rules. This page sets out what still backs DAI, what has changed, and when it makes sense to hold it rather than USDS.

How does DAI work?

Borrowers lock collateral in Sky's vaults and mint the DAI stablecoin against it, paying a stability fee; when they repay, the DAI is burned. A peg stability module lets anyone swap DAI for USDC 1:1, which holds the price near a dollar. MakerDAO moved to accept USDC as collateral days after the "Black Thursday" crash of March 2020, when DAI traded well above $1, and introduced the module later that year.

The design has changed a lot since the first, ETH-only version of 2017. Multi-collateral DAI went live on 18 November 2019, the Maker Foundation handed control to token holders in 2021, and on 27 August 2024 MakerDAO rebranded as Sky. USDS launched on 18 September 2024 on the same balance sheet, and "the existing DAI and MKR tokens will remain active", The Block reported at the time. Sky's own product page now calls USDS "the upgrade of DAI".

What backs DAI today?

DAI and USDS draw on one pool of collateral. Sky's public financial dashboard counted $10.11 billion of assets backing circulating DAI and USDS on 16 October 2026; the gross market value of the posted collateral, including the excess on over-collateralized loans, was about $16.2 billion. About half is stablecoins, and USDC alone stands behind 43.3%:

The USDC in the peg stability module, $4.18 billion that day, does not sit inside a smart contract. It sits in a plain wallet address, the module's "pocket", rather than inside the module's contract.

Nobody attests these figures, because there is no company to attest them. The data is public, and so are its weak spots. Sky's accounting showed assets at 99.63% of liabilities on 16 October 2026, and its reserves were about $77 million at the end of August against a $150 million target, per the Sky Frontier Foundation's August update.

Rating agencies score the protocol low. S&P Global rated Sky B- in August 2025 and affirmed it again in 2026, per the Sky Frontier Foundation; Moody's assigned a B3 rating with a stable outlook in October 2026, the first it has given a stablecoin protocol, The Block reported.

Is DAI safe?

DAI is safe from freezes and has kept its peg since 2023, but it carries Sky's thin capital and USDC's risk. Weigh the strengths and weaknesses separately:

• Nobody can freeze it. The DAI token contract has no freeze, blacklist, pause or upgrade function, and the only address allowed to mint is the DaiJoin contract, which has been the case since November 2019, per the verified contract source and on-chain reads. USDS, by contrast, is upgradeable.
• Governance still matters. Sky's token holders set the savings rate, stability fees and collateral, and can trigger a global settlement after a 48-hour delay. The holder-triggered emergency shutdown is disabled on-chain.
• USDC dependence. With 43.3% of backing in USDC, a USDC shock reaches DAI, as it did in March 2023.
• Thin capital. Reserves around 1% of assets and B-range ratings mean a large loss on a loan or credit fund would be felt.
• Shrinking liquidity. Fewer exchanges list DAI each year, which can widen spreads when you need to exit.

Smart-contract risk has a long record behind it. Trail of Bits, PeckShield and Runtime Verification reviewed the multi-collateral system in 2018 and 2019, and Sky runs an Immunefi bug bounty of up to $10 million. No exploit of the core contracts has been reported.

Has DAI ever lost its peg?

Twice in a material way, once above and once below a dollar:

The 2023 episode is the relevant one now. USDC still stands behind 43.3% of the shared backing today, so a USDC shock would again reach DAI.

Should you switch from DAI to USDS?

For most holders, yes, unless you specifically want a token that can never be frozen. The two convert 1:1 in both directions through Sky's converter, with no fee and no way for governance to add one. The trade-offs:

The savings gap is the practical argument, and it is large. A holder with $10,000 in the DAI Savings Rate would earn about $125 a year at 1.25%, against about $380 in sUSDS at 3.80%, if neither rate changed. The Sky Frontier Foundation's June 2026 update calls the DSR "legacy", and Spark labels its sDAI vault "Savings DAI (Legacy)".

The immutability is the argument for staying. If a future governance vote ever added a freeze function to USDS, which Sky's founder said in 2024 the upgradeable design would allow, DAI would remain outside it, because its contract has no upgrade path and no admin who could change that.

Where can you buy or sell DAI?

On fewer platforms than a year ago. As of 16 October 2026, the picture looked like this:

• Coinbase converted customers' DAI to USDS from 4 to 6 May 2026 and its public exchange data shows DAI as delisted. Coinbase had already ended DAI support for European users on 13 December 2024.
• Kraken still lists DAI/USD outside the EEA and Canada. Gemini also lists DAI/USD and DAI/USDC, with thin volume.
• Binance.US shows its DAI pairs as not trading, and Robinhood shows DAI for price data only.
• Crypto.com converted DAI to USDS by 16 April 2026, and Binance removed its DAI pairs in April 2026.
• In Japan, Coincheck ends DAI trading on 26 October 2026 and withdrawals on 2 November 2026.

On-chain, nothing has changed. You can swap DAI for USDC 1:1 in Sky's peg stability module, which charged no fee on 16 October 2026, or convert it to USDS and use any venue that lists USDS. Our Kraken review covers one of the remaining US venues.

Which blockchains is DAI on?

DAI is minted only on Ethereum, where about $4.15 billion of it, including DSR deposits, sat on 16 October 2026, per DefiLlama. Bridged versions exist elsewhere, but most are thin.

Sky still runs open DAI bridges to Arbitrum and Optimism, with about 17 million and 14 million DAI circulating on those networks respectively; its Starknet bridge closed on 17 June 2024, and the Gnosis bridge now carries USDS instead of DAI. The largest third-party copy is on Polygon, at about $444 million via the Polygon PoS bridge, per DefiLlama. Treat any bridged DAI as carrying the bridge's risk on top of DAI's.

Is DAI regulated?

No, in any jurisdiction. In the US, the GENIUS Act defines a payment stablecoin by an issuer's obligation to redeem for a fixed amount of money, and DAI has no issuer. The SEC staff's April 2025 statement on "covered stablecoins" excludes coins backed by crypto assets, so DAI falls outside it too. No regulator has said how the 2028 rules on US platforms will treat DAI.

In the EU, DAI is not authorised under MiCA, which is why Binance and Kraken removed it for European users in 2025. On 8 October 2026 ESMA set out its expectation that licensed firms stop all services for unauthorised stablecoins, custody included, and wind down existing exposures within three months.

In the UK, the sky.money app lists the UK as a prohibited jurisdiction, and the FCA's new regime, which takes effect on 25 October 2027, sets stablecoin rules for fiat-backed issuers; the FCA plans to consult on DeFi guidance in late 2026, per Latham & Watkins.

How is DAI taxed in the US?

The IRS treats stablecoins as property, so selling DAI or swapping it for another crypto asset is a taxable disposal, per the IRS digital assets page and its virtual currency FAQ. The IRS has said nothing specific about the DAI to USDS conversion or about DSR interest, so get advice before assuming either is tax-free. Our US crypto tax guide covers the general rules.

Who should still hold DAI?

DAI suits a narrow group in 2026: DeFi users and protocols that value an immutable, unfreezable dollar above yield, and integrations that already rely on it. For them the lower savings rate is the price of a contract nobody can change.

Everyone else is better served elsewhere. If you want Sky's yield, convert to USDS at no cost. If you want a dollar you can redeem through a regulated company, USDC is the plain choice. Our stablecoin hub compares the main coins, and the guide to what a stablecoin is covers the basics.

Sources

1. Sky Protocol on-chain reads (DAI, Pot, DaiJoin, LitePSM, converter) via Sky's chainlog, block 26207458, 2026-10-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.
2. Etherscan, verified DAI token contract source. Accessed 2026-10-16.
3. Sky Financial Dashboard (BlockAnalitica), backing, supply and accounting data, 2026-10-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.
4. Sky Frontier Foundation, June 2026 financial and operational update, 2026-07-10. Accessed 2026-10-16.
5. Sky, products and peg stability module explainer, 2026-10-09; Sky developer docs, protocol token routes, USDS token and LitePSM. Accessed 2026-10-16.
6. Spark, Savings DAI (Legacy). Accessed 2026-10-16.
7. The Block, MakerDAO rebrands to Sky, 2024-08-27, and Moody's B3 rating, 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-16.
8. Glassnode, What really happened to MakerDAO, 2020-03-17; CoinDesk, DAI depegs, 2023-03-11. Accessed 2026-10-16.
9. DefiLlama, DAI supply and chains, daily stablecoin prices and stablecoin rankings, 2026-10-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.
10. Immunefi, Sky bug bounty, updated 2026-09-19. Accessed 2026-10-16.
11. Coinbase Exchange, DAI status; Kraken, asset pairs; Binance.US, exchange info; Robinhood, coin availability. Accessed 2026-10-16.
12. CoinPost, Coincheck ends DAI support, 2026-09-28. Accessed 2026-10-16.
13. US Government Publishing Office, GENIUS Act, Public Law 119-27; SEC, staff statement on stablecoins, 2025-04-04. Accessed 2026-10-16.
14. ESMA, supervisory expectations on unauthorised stablecoins, 2026-10-08. Accessed 2026-10-16.
15. Skybase International, sky.money terms of use v2.0, 2026-09-01. Accessed 2026-10-16.
16. IRS, digital assets and virtual currency FAQ. Accessed 2026-10-16.
17. CoinGecko, DAI price history (all-time high $1.22). Accessed 2026-10-17.
18. The Block, USDC and DAI remain at about $0.90, 2023-03-11; Decrypt, MakerDAO: what went wrong and how it was fixed, 2020-03-20. Accessed 2026-10-16.
19. The Block, Multi-collateral DAI goes live, 2019-11-18; Decrypt, Maker Foundation is shutting down, 2021-07-20. Accessed 2026-10-16.
20. Cointelegraph, USDS criticized over freeze function, 2024-08-28. Accessed 2026-10-16.
21. Sky Frontier Foundation, Moody's assigns rating to Sky Protocol, 2026-10-07, and August 2026 financial and operational update, 2026-09-17. Accessed 2026-10-16.
22. Sky Ecosystem, multi-collateral DAI audit reports. Accessed 2026-10-16.
23. AMBCrypto, Coinbase DAI to USDS conversion timeline, 2026-04-06; Cointelegraph, Coinbase Europe stablecoin delistings, 2024-12-12. Accessed 2026-10-16.
24. Crypto.com, DAI token rebrand to USDS, updated 2026-04-16; ChainCatcher, Binance DAI pair removal, 2026-03-20; Gemini, trading symbols. Accessed 2026-10-16.
25. Cointelegraph, Binance EEA stablecoin delistings, 2025-03-03; Kraken, DAI update for EEA clients and Canada trading suspension. Accessed 2026-10-16.
26. Latham & Watkins, FCA final rules for the UK cryptoasset regime, 2026-06-30. Accessed 2026-10-16.