USDS (USDS) Price Chart and Market Data

This overview covers the mechanics of minting, legacy asset upgrades, exchange availability, yield farming opportunities, and historical protocol funding.

What is USDS?

USDS is a decentralized, over-collateralized stablecoin soft-pegged 1:1 to the US Dollar. It launched on September 18, 2024, as the modernized—or, rather, rebranded—successor to DAI by the Sky Protocol. You might wonder why we need another stablecoin when USDT exists. Well, here is the deal: USDS is entirely on-chain. Instead of sitting in a bank somewhere, it's backed by a surplus of crypto collateral. So, it basically acts as the primary medium of exchange across the whole Sky ecosystem.

How does minting the USDS coin work?

New tokens are minted exclusively when users deposit volatile crypto-assets—think ETH or WBTC—into smart contract vaults. It is strictly an over-collateralized setup. For instance, a vault might demand a 130% ratio. That means locking up $130 in ETH just to mint 100 USDS. When you repay the debt, plus the Stability Fee, those specific tokens are permanently burned. Honestly, this dual minting and burning loop is what ensures the circulating supply is actually backed by real on-chain assets, not just promises.

Can legacy DAI holders upgrade to the USDS crypto?

Yes, users can seamlessly upgrade their legacy DAI to USDS at a fixed 1:1 ratio. It's a fully bi-directional process through the Sky.money interface, so you can always revert to DAI if you really want to. Worth noting, though, is that upgrading is how you unlock the new native utility. Holding USDS actually grants you access to the Sky Savings Rate (SSR). Plus, you get a share of the 600 million SKY governance tokens that they distribute annually through the rewards program.

Where is the USDS stablecoin available for trading?

You can trade it across most major centralized and decentralized exchanges now. Centralized venues like Coinbase and Kraken offer direct fiat pairs, specifically USDS/USD. On-chain, Uniswap V2 handles massive volume for the USDS/SKY pair, while Curve dominates the USDS/PYUSD pool. Also, thanks to the SkyLink bridge, liquidity has seriously spilled over to Solana. You’ll find it actively traded on Raydium and the Meteora DEX, which features pairs like USDS/USDC, USDS/USDT, and even USDS/SOL.

Are there any yield or farming opportunities for holders?

There absolutely are. Beyond the native Sky Savings Rate, the ecosystem is plugging into external DeFi protocols. A great example—starting April 10, 2025, USDS became supported on the Solana-based Loopscale lending platform. By lending or borrowing it there, you earn "Loopscale Points" for future drops. And that's entirely separate from the main 10-year Spark (SPK) farming campaign, which, by the way, allocates a massive 65% of its 10 billion total supply strictly to community rewards.

Who backed the original protocol?

The foundational protocol raised a total of $61.5 million across several rounds between 2017 and 2020. Early on, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led a $12 million venture round in December 2017, then followed up with a solo $15 million round in 2018. Later, around December 2019, Paradigm and Dragonfly Capital stepped in to lead a $27.5 million OTC round. Those funds basically built the original multi-collateral system that evolved into the Sky and USDS ecosystem we have today.