On-chain & RWA collateralRank #4
DAIMulti-Collateral Dai
Sky Protocol (formerly MakerDAO)
- Market cap
- $4.6B
- Circulating supply
- 4.6B
- Networks
- 5
EIP/ERC standards & compliance
Full DAI profile: ERC-20, permit, proxy patterns, cross-chain, flash loans, and compliance EIPs — with implementation notes and verified contract context.
Overview
Original decentralized stablecoin, live since December 2017. Users open Vaults and over-collateralize crypto to mint DAI. MakerDAO rebranded to Sky Protocol in 2024 and launched USDS as a successor — DAI and USDS are freely interchangeable 1:1. Fully on-chain governance by SKY token holders.
Supply by chain
Market cap
$4.6B
Circulating supply
4.6B
Supply chains
49
| Chain | Supply | Market cap | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | 3.7B | $3.7B | 80.5% |
| Polygon | 765.7M | $766M | 16.5% |
| Fantom | 35.1M | $35M | 0.76% |
| BSC | 31.1M | $31M | 0.67% |
| Arbitrum | 18.9M | $19M | 0.41% |
| OP Mainnet | 14.7M | $15M | 0.32% |
| PulseChain | 13.4M | $13M | 0.29% |
| Avalanche | 10.9M | $11M | 0.23% |
| Kaia | 8.1M | $8M | 0.18% |
| Kava | 1.9M | $2M | 0.04% |
| Near | 1.0M | $1M | 0.02% |
| Moonriver | 734.7K | $734K | 0.02% |
| Other tracked chains (32) | 2.8M | $3M | 0.06% |
| Current circulating supply by chain from DeFiLlama. Small supply footprints are grouped after the top 12 chains and may include bridged or non-curated deployments. | |||
Features
Engineering-oriented breakdown of capabilities: standards, who they matter for, integration rationale, per-feature risks, and vetted external references (specs, docs, verified source).
Protocol repo: github.com/makerdaoPrimary Ethereum verified source: Etherscan
| Feature | Standards | Audience | Why it matters | Risk / caveat | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Multi-collateral vaults stability | — | Both | DAI is minted from Maker/Sky vaults — integrations with leverage need to understand collateral types and liquidation math. | Collateral parameters change via governance; assumptions decay without monitoring. | |
DAI Savings Rate — DSR yield |
| User | Protocol-native yield for holding DAI — integrate Pot contract or Spark interfaces depending on deployment. | DSR rate changes with governance; not a fixed yield product. | |
Liquidation auctions — Dog/Clip stability | — | Both | Undercollateralized vaults liquidate via auction — relevant for keepers and risk dashboards, not typical transfers. | Oracle or market shocks can cascade liquidations; MEV and gas spikes affect execution. | |
On-chain governance via SKY governance | — | Both | Protocol risk parameters are voted on-chain — long-lived integrations should track spells and executive votes. | Governance attacks or voter apathy can change collateral and oracle behavior. | |
Peg Stability Module — PSM stability | — | Both | PSM enables near-par swaps with whitelisted stablecoins — primary on-chain peg arbitrage lever for integrators. | Inventory and fee parameters change; USDC PSM exposure links to Circle risk indirectly. | |
Real-world asset integration stability | — | Corporate | RWA collateral introduces off-chain legal and reporting dependencies beyond pure crypto price feeds. | RWA counterparty and legal structure risk; oracle latency vs off-chain marks. | |
Decentralised oracle — Medianizer stability | — | Both | Prices feed liquidations — integrations relying on DAI price should understand oracle sources and delays. | Oracle manipulation or STETH-style feed issues can misprice collateral. |
EIP / ERC support matrix
Standards & compliance support for DAI. Click an EIP to jump to the global deep-dive section.
| Standard | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Core | ||
| ERC-20 Fungible token standard | Implemented | The MAX_UINT infinite allowance pattern means protocols that approve DAI once for MAX_UINT do not need repeated approvals. The src == msg.sender shortcut simplifies vault integration patterns where users call the vault directly without prior approval. |
| Signatures & typed data | ||
| EIP-712 Typed structured data signing | Implemented | Prerequisite for the permit() function. DAI was a major reference implementation for EIP-712 adoption in the DeFi ecosystem. |
| EIP-2612 Permit — gasless ERC-20 approval | Partial | DAI invented permit-based approvals but its ABI is incompatible with the standard that followed. Any integration with both USDC-style and DAI permit needs two separate code paths. |
| EIP-3009 transferWithAuthorization | Not implemented | Building atomic single-transaction payment flows with DAI requires an intermediary contract that calls permit() then transferFrom() atomically. The DAI immutability means this gap is permanent. |
| EIP-1271 Signature validation for smart contracts | Not implemented | Contract wallets must use EOA co-signers or off-chain message flows for DAI permit. Migrate to USDS if EIP-1271 smart-wallet support is a requirement. |
| Upgradeability & proxies | ||
| EIP-1967 Standard proxy storage slots | Not implemented | Immutability is a trust property: no entity (including Sky Protocol governance) can change the DAI contract logic. For protocols that require maximum stability of their token dependency, this is valuable. Trade-off: bugs cannot be patched, features cannot be added. |
| EIP-1822 UUPS — universal upgradeable proxy | Not implemented | Immutability eliminates upgrade risk entirely. No UUPS considerations apply. |
| Vaults & yield | ||
| ERC-4626 Tokenized yield vault standard | Alternative | Via sDAI (Spark Protocol): sDAI is an official ecosystem ERC-4626 vault wrapper over the DAI Savings Rate (DSR). Deployed by Spark Protocol — provides standard deposit/withdraw/convertToAssets on a separate contract, channelling Pot.sol yield. |
| Compliance | ||
| Freeze Address freezing / blacklisting | Not implemented | DAI cannot comply with address-level sanctions enforcement at the protocol level. Compliance must be enforced at the application layer (exchanges, front-ends) rather than the token contract. For institutional use cases requiring freeze capability, USDS was created as the upgradeable successor. |
| Seize Fund seizure / clawback | Not implemented | DAI balances are sovereign — no external party can remove them. This is a feature for censorship resistance but a limitation for regulated institutional flows. |
| Pause Global transfer pause | Not implemented | DAI transfers will always work as long as the Ethereum network is operational. No single entity can halt DAI movement. MCD emergency shutdown affects minting/CDP operations, not transfer(). |
| Cross-chain | ||
| ERC-7802 Crosschain token interface | Not implemented | Cross-chain DAI relies on canonical L2 bridges, not a standardised cross-chain token interface. |
| Flash Loans | ||
| ERC-3156 Flash loans | Implemented | Unique DeFi primitive — enables arbitrage, liquidation, and refinancing without upfront capital. No other stablecoin in the top 10 offers native flash minting. DssFlash democratizes MEV by making flash liquidity available to anyone, not just protocols with pre-funded pools. |
| Data sourced from verified Etherscan contract source code. Implementations may differ across networks — always verify on the specific chain you integrate with. | ||
Technical notes
- 18 decimals.
- DAI is the ONLY major stablecoin with native ERC-3156 flash loans (DssFlash module 0x60744434d6339a6B27d73d9Eda62b6F66a0a04FA).
- permit() is NON-STANDARD: uses bool allowed (not uint256 value) — setting true = MAX_UINT approval, false = 0.
- Silently coerces uint256 to bool, breaking standard EIP-2612 ABIs.
- MCD core: Vat.sol, Jug.sol, Dog.sol, Clip.sol, Pot.sol.
- Immutable contract — no upgrade path, no freeze capability.
- DaiUsds.sol enables permissionless 1:1 DAI↔USDS conversion.
Reserves & peg
- Reserves
- ETH (~40%), stETH, WBTC, RWAs (~$2.68B+ mid‑2025), USDC via PSM (varies over time)
- Collateral
- On-chain crypto and RWAs
- Peg mechanism
- Algorithmic via DSR, PSM arbitrage, and liquidation mechanisms
- Auditor
- Trail of Bits, PwC (periodic), community-audited
Ecosystem
- DeFi integration
- Foundational — used as collateral, trading pair, and yield instrument across Aave, Compound, Curve, Uniswap
- Yield
- DSR variable (~4–8% historically)
Risk factors
mediumCollateral volatilitymediumGovernance attack vectormediumRWA counterparty riskmediumOracle manipulation
Technical references
Official docs
Multi-Collateral Dai
sky.money
Source code
GitHub repository
makerdao
Verified contract · Ethereum
dai.sol (MCD)
0x6B17…1d0F· block 8,928,158
Block explorers
Networks & contracts
Deployments by chain — primary rows are highlighted. Always verify addresses against issuer docs before mainnet integrations.
| Network | Standard | Contract | Explorer |
|---|---|---|---|
EthereumPrimary | ERC-20 | 0x6B175474E89094C44Da98b954EedeAC495271d0FDAI — immutable contract | View |
ArbitrumSecondary | ERC-20 | 0xDA10009cBd5D07dd0CeCc66161FC93D7c9000da1 | View |
OptimismSecondary | ERC-20 | 0xDA10009cBd5D07dd0CeCc66161FC93D7c9000da1 | View |
PolygonSecondary | ERC-20 | 0x8f3Cf7ad23Cd3CaDbD9735AFf958023239c6A063 | View |
BaseSecondary | ERC-20 | 0x50c5725949A6F0c72E6C4a641F24049A917DB0Cb | View |
Engineering deep dive
Integration notes
DAI inherits Maker / Sky risk parameters: liquidations, PSM inventory, and oracle configuration can change via governance. Read Vat / Jug / Dog semantics before building leveraged products on DAI collateral.
Peg tooling
The PSM is the dominant on-chain peg stabiliser for integrations that need near-par USD stable swaps with governance-approved assets.