By Eco research. Updated May 2026.
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The Sky Savings Rate (SSR) is the administered yield Sky pays to holders of sUSDS, the staked form of USDS. As of Q2 2026 the rate is set at 3.75% by Sky governance, down from peaks above 8% in 2024 and tracking the broader rate environment. SSR replaced the legacy DAI Savings Rate (DSR) after MakerDAO rebranded to Sky in August 2024, and most onchain capital that previously sat in sDAI has since migrated into sUSDS or wrapped USDS directly. Total USDS supply sits between $9-11B per DeFiLlama, with roughly half staked into sUSDS.
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SSR is not a market-clearing rate like Ethena's sUSDe yield or an Aave deposit APY. It is a governance-set parameter that Sky funds from three internal yield streams: real-world asset (RWA) collateral generating Treasury bill returns, the Spark borrow rate paid by users borrowing USDS against collateral, and stability fees from USDS minted via the original CDP system. The rate is reset by governance vote as those input streams shift, which is why SSR moves in discrete steps rather than continuously.
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This article covers SSR governance and how the rate is set, USDS to sUSDS conversion mechanics, the differences versus the legacy DSR, how Sky funds the yield, the Sky Star subDAO upgrade, and the MKR to SKY migration that consolidated governance under the new token. The aim is enough mechanism to evaluate whether sUSDS belongs in your stablecoin yield mix, not a recommendation.
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The Sky Savings Rate is the annualized yield that Sky distributes to sUSDS holders, set by Sky governance and funded from protocol revenue. SSR is the successor to the DAI Savings Rate (DSR) that MakerDAO operated from 2019 through 2024. It serves the same function: give USDS holders a non-custodial place to earn yield without leaving the Sky ecosystem. As of May 2026 SSR is 3.75% per sky.money.
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SSR is administered, not market-driven. That distinction matters because most other onchain yields (Aave deposit APY, Morpho vault APY, Curve LP fees) clear through supply and demand. SSR is voted into existence by SKY token holders and stays at its set value until the next governance vote changes it. The cadence is roughly monthly during stable periods and more frequent when rate inputs shift. Historical rates are visible on makerburn.com, which has tracked Sky and predecessor MakerDAO governance since 2020.
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SSR applies only to USDS staked into sUSDS through the official savings module. Idle USDS in a wallet earns zero. The rate is denominated in USDS and accrues continuously via an exchange-rate mechanism (covered below), not via balance rebasing. This makes sUSDS composable inside DeFi protocols that prefer non-rebasing tokens, including Aave, Morpho, and Pendle.
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SSR is set by SKY token holders through Sky's onchain governance system, with proposals authored by the Stability Scope core unit and executed via timelocked governance contracts. A typical SSR change moves in steps of 25 to 100 basis points and follows shifts in the broader rate environment, the Spark borrow rate, or USDS supply targets. Voting happens on the Sky governance portal and on snapshot, with results executed through the Sky Protocol Engineering process documented at sky.money.
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The rate is one lever in a larger mechanism. Sky governance also sets the Spark borrow rate, the Dai Savings Rate (legacy DSR, still active for backwards compatibility), debt ceilings on each collateral type, and the allocation between RWA and crypto-collateral backing. SSR and the Spark borrow rate move together most of the time because they are two sides of the same balance sheet: depositors earn SSR, borrowers pay the Spark rate, and Sky takes the spread. When the spread compresses, governance often lifts the borrow rate or trims SSR to keep the protocol surplus positive.
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The Stability Scope publishes monthly assessments that lay out the case for each rate change. These cover RWA portfolio yield, Spark utilization, USDS supply trends, and competitive rates at other onchain yield venues. The assessments are public and form the primary input to each vote. Reading the most recent one is the fastest way to understand why SSR sits where it does at any given moment.
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USDS converts to sUSDS through the Sky savings module at a continuously rising exchange rate. A user deposits USDS, the module mints sUSDS at the current rate, and the underlying USDS balance grows with accrued yield while the sUSDS supply stays constant per deposit. Redemption reverses the flow: burn sUSDS, receive USDS at the current rate, which is higher than the deposit rate by the accrued SSR for the holding period.
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The exchange rate update is deterministic. The module compounds SSR continuously using a per-second rate stored as a fixed-point number. The contract function chi returns the current accumulator value, and convertToAssets(amount) returns the USDS value of any sUSDS balance at the current block. Anyone can read these values directly from the contract, which is why Sky describes SSR as fully verifiable onchain.
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There is no cooldown on sUSDS redemption. Unlike sUSDe (seven-day cooldown) or sFRAX (variable lock-up), sUSDS allows instant unstake at the current exchange rate. This makes sUSDS more liquid than competing yield-bearing stablecoins but also means Sky cannot prevent rapid outflows during stress. The instant-redemption property exists because Sky's backing assets are deeply liquid (RWA T-bill positions and overcollateralized crypto loans) and can be unwound at par on short notice in most market conditions.
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The DAI Savings Rate (DSR) was MakerDAO's pre-rebrand version of the same mechanism: deposit DAI, earn an administered yield, redeem at any time. SSR replaced DSR as the headline rate after the Sky rebrand in August 2024, but DSR remains active for users who hold legacy DAI rather than USDS. The two rates are set independently by Sky governance, and SSR has consistently sat above DSR since the rebrand.
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The gap exists by design. Sky governance wants new flows to land in USDS and sUSDS, so SSR carries a premium to DSR. DAI is the legacy track Sky maintains for backwards compatibility and for users on protocols that have not yet integrated USDS. As of Q2 2026, DSR sits roughly 50 to 100 basis points below SSR, with the exact gap reset by governance as the migration completes. Users with idle DAI can swap to USDS one-for-one at the official Sky Token Converter with no slippage.
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The other notable difference is the wrapped form. sDAI was MakerDAO's first yield-bearing wrapper and reached over $1.5B in supply at its peak. sUSDS replaces sDAI as the primary yield wrapper and is the form Sky now promotes in integrations. sDAI still exists, still earns DSR, and is still composable inside DeFi, but new integrations almost universally use sUSDS. See sUSDe vs sUSDS vs sDAI for a side-by-side of the three.
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Sky funds SSR from three internal yield streams: real-world asset collateral, the Spark borrow rate, and stability fees on crypto-collateral CDPs. Each stream contributes a portion of the protocol surplus, and SSR is calibrated so the surplus covers payouts to sUSDS holders plus operating costs plus a buffer. The streams are visible in the Sky financial reports published monthly and tracked in real time on makerburn.com.
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Real-world asset collateral. Sky holds several billion dollars of tokenized US Treasury bill exposure through allocator partners including Monetalis, BlockTower, and the Sky Endgame Allocator vehicles. These positions yield the prevailing Treasury rate, currently near 4.5% on the front end. Sky captures the spread between T-bill yield and SSR as protocol revenue.
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Spark borrow rate.Spark is the Sky-aligned lending market where users borrow USDS against ETH, wstETH, and other approved collateral. The Spark borrow rate is set by Sky governance and currently sits around 6 to 7% depending on collateral type. The spread between the borrow rate and SSR funds the rest of the yield, and Sky has direct control over both legs because Spark routes its USDS supply through Sky's D3M (Direct Deposit Module).
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Stability fees. The original MakerDAO CDP system is still active for users who mint USDS against ETH or other approved collateral through the legacy vault interface. The annualized stability fee on each vault flows to protocol surplus. This stream is smaller than RWA or Spark in 2026 but provided most of MakerDAO's revenue from 2019 through 2022 before RWA scaled up.
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The mix has shifted hard toward RWA since 2023. At the start of 2023, crypto-collateral stability fees were over 70% of Sky revenue. By Q2 2026, RWA is the dominant input at roughly 60 to 70% of the yield stack, with Spark borrow second and crypto CDPs third. This means SSR is more correlated with US Treasury rates than with onchain demand for leverage, which was not true of the early DSR.
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Sky Star is the next phase of the Sky Endgame plan introduced by Rune Christensen in 2022 and rolled out in stages since. Stars are subDAOs that operate as semi-autonomous units inside the Sky ecosystem, each with its own token, governance, and focus area. The first Stars launched in 2024 (Spark for lending, Bloom for RWA allocation, NewChain for the dedicated Sky L1 chain currently under development) and additional Stars are added through governance vote.
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The structural goal is to decompose MakerDAO's monolithic governance into smaller, faster-moving units. Each Star handles its own product decisions while remaining aligned with Sky through shared collateral, shared USDS issuance, and economic linkages back to the SKY token. SSR-relevant Stars include Spark (which sets the borrow rate that funds part of SSR) and Bloom (which allocates capital to RWA partners that fund the rest). Bloom and Spark together determine the yield envelope SSR can pay.
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Sky Star tokens trade independently of SKY but receive value accrual tied to their subDAO's performance. Spark's token, SPK, launched in 2024 and is held by users who provide liquidity or participate in Spark governance. The full Star roster and current governance state are tracked at sky.money under the ecosystem section.
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The MKR to SKY migration was the governance token swap that accompanied the August 2024 rebrand from MakerDAO to Sky. Holders of MKR can convert at a fixed ratio of 1 MKR to 24,000 SKY through the official Sky Token Upgrade at sky.money. The conversion is one-way and has no expiry. Both tokens still exist on Ethereum, but governance power has fully transitioned to SKY.
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The 24,000 ratio was chosen so SKY would have a per-token price low enough for retail-friendly participation while preserving the total economic value of MKR holders. As of Q2 2026 roughly 60 to 70% of MKR supply has migrated, with the remaining MKR mostly held by long-term holders who have not yet executed the swap. The Sky governance system accepts votes from both tokens at the conversion ratio, so MKR holders are not disenfranchised, but new governance modules increasingly assume SKY-denominated voting.
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SKY also introduced new staking and reward mechanisms tied to Sky Star activity. SKY can be staked in Sky Sky (the rewards module) to earn newly issued SKY plus a share of Sky Star token airdrops. This creates a yield path for SKY holders separate from the USDS savings path that SSR provides. The two are independent: SSR is for stablecoin holders seeking yield, SKY staking is for governance participants seeking exposure to ecosystem growth.
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The table below summarizes Sky's headline parameters as of May 2026, sourced from sky.money and makerburn.com. Numbers refresh on each governance vote; cross-check before deploying capital.
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For deeper protocol-level data including monthly revenue breakdown by source, current RWA portfolio composition, and historical SSR/DSR rate ladders, makerburn.com remains the most useful third-party tracker. It pulls data directly from Sky's onchain contracts and has been operated continuously since 2020.
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sUSDS sits in the middle of the yield-bearing stablecoin spectrum: lower yield than sUSDe (which earns from perp funding) but higher liquidity, lower complexity, and a more predictable rate path. The trade-off is the standard one between administered and market-clearing yields. Administered rates move slowly and predictably; market rates move continuously and can be far higher or far lower than any administered competitor.
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For investors who want low-variance stablecoin yield with onchain custody, sUSDS is one of the cleanest options because the rate-setting body (Sky governance) publishes its reasoning monthly, and the backing assets are dominated by Treasury bills with overcollateralized crypto loans as the secondary backing. For investors who want maximum yield and accept variable downside, sUSDe or Pendle PT positions on sUSDe typically clear higher. See sUSDe vs sUSDS vs sDAI for the side-by-side breakdown.
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For cross-chain USDS movement, Eco's stablecoin orchestration platform routes USDS across supported chains via canonical bridges. sUSDS is primarily a single-chain position; it composes well inside Ethereum DeFi but is not yet routed across chains the way the fiat-backed dollars are. Most yield-seeking deployments stake sUSDS on Ethereum mainnet and use other tools for multi-chain exposure.
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sUSDS carries the credit risk of Sky as an issuer plus the smart contract risk of the savings module. Sky has operated continuously since 2017 (as MakerDAO) and has weathered multiple stress events without principal loss for savings depositors. Long-term holding is common, but a thoughtful position-sizing approach treats sUSDS as DeFi exposure, not a bank deposit. See our USDS pillar for the full Sky risk profile.
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Governance can vote SSR to any non-negative value, including zero. A vote to cut SSR sharply would require a Sky governance proposal, a discussion period, and an executive vote, all of which is public. Holders who watch governance closely typically see rate changes coming weeks in advance. The legacy DSR has been cut to as low as 0% during periods when MakerDAO did not need to attract DAI supply.
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Sky governance wants new capital to flow into USDS and sUSDS rather than the legacy DAI/sDAI track, so SSR carries a premium. The gap is typically 50 to 100 basis points and is reset by governance as the migration progresses. Users with idle DAI can swap to USDS at par via the Sky Token Converter to capture the higher rate.
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The savings module is non-custodial and contract-level redemption is always possible as long as the contract holds USDS backing. A governance failure would freeze parameter changes but would not seize deposits. The bigger risk is collateral failure (RWA partner default, large crypto liquidation cascade), which would erode the surplus and could force a haircut on USDS holders, including sUSDS. Sky maintains a surplus buffer and a SKY backstop mechanism for exactly that scenario.
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No. MKR remains valid for governance voting at the 1:24,000 conversion ratio, and there is no expiry on the upgrade. New governance modules increasingly assume SKY, so most active voters have migrated, but passive MKR holders can leave the position unchanged without loss.
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Sources and methodology. SSR, USDS supply, and Sky governance parameters pulled from sky.money and makerburn.com on May 24, 2026. Protocol TVL via DeFiLlama. Sky Endgame and Sky Star structure per the Sky governance documentation. Numbers refresh on each governance vote; cross-check before deploying capital.
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