Sky (SKY) only 3.8 percent below its December 2024 record: the level that decides

Sky costs $0.09669 on Sunday morning, the equivalent of just under 8.6 cents. That leaves the token 3.8 percent short of its record of $0.100535 from December 2024. This is the week's real story: while bitcoin sits around a third below its peak, Sky is on the verge of beating its own. Over the week the token has gained 25.8 percent, and over the month 39.7 percent.

No single announcement carries the rise. Behind it stands a series of figures from the protocol itself. The supply of its in-house stablecoin USDS has reached the $10 billion mark, the savings rate on it stands at 3.60 percent a year, and a listed asset manager placed $100 million of it in its own corporate treasury in September. At the same time the EU is working on rules that could hit precisely such stablecoins in Europe. This article puts both in context.

Sky price at $0.09669: a weekly gain of 25.8 percent and 3.8 percent short of the record

Over the past 24 hours the price ranged between $0.08724 and $0.09779. The daily high therefore marks the highest level since the record almost two years ago. The gain of 8.46 percent within a day falls in a week in which the overall market barely budged: bitcoin moved by less than one percent over the same period.

Market capitalisation amounts to $2.26 billion, which puts Sky at number 50 among the largest cryptocurrencies. Daily turnover stands at just under $21 million. That ratio is notable: less than one percent of the market capitalisation changes hands per day. A market with thin turnover moves more sharply on large orders, upwards as well as downwards.

Of a total of 23.46 billion SKY, 23.42 billion are in circulation. A large release wave that could dilute the price is therefore not pending from that direction. That sets Sky apart from many projects where an unlock defines the week.

What Sky is: MakerDAO became Sky, MKR became SKY, DAI became USDS

Sky is the renamed MakerDAO, one of the oldest lending protocols on Ethereum. A lending protocol is a program that issues loans without a bank standing in between: whoever deposits collateral is paid out a stablecoin in return.

Three things were given new names in the 2024 rebranding. The governance token MKR is now called SKY, the stablecoin DAI is called USDS, and the interest-bearing variant of that stablecoin is called sUSDS. A governance token is a token that entitles its holder to vote on the rules of the protocol, for instance on the level of the savings rate. That is precisely what defines SKY: the token embodies a voting right and a claim to part of the proceeds, and it is not intended for making payments.

Anyone still holding MKR should know that the conversion now costs money. Nominally, one MKR is exchanged for 24,000 SKY. According to our own analysis of September 2, 2026, the conversion contract withheld four percent at that point, so one MKR became 23,040 SKY. This deduction rises by one percentage point each quarter; the fourth step took effect on June 8, 2026. There is no hard deadline after which a conversion would no longer be possible at all, but the deduction keeps growing.

USDS supply at the $10 billion mark

Here the figures diverge slightly, and that is part of the picture. The news site Cryptobriefing reported on September 30, 2026 that the USDS supply had passed the $10 billion mark after $237 million was added within a day. The protocol itself currently shows $9.96 billion on its home page. The range therefore runs from just under to a little over $10 billion, depending on the reference date and the counting method; anyone adding up USDS and the legacy DAI balance arrives at different values than someone counting USDS alone.

More important than the second decimal place is the backing. Against the roughly $10 billion of USDS stand $17.16 billion of collateral according to the protocol's own figures. A stablecoin backed by considerably more value than it is itself meant to be worth is an overcollateralised stablecoin, and in credit-based models that is the rule, because the collateral itself fluctuates. Cryptobriefing additionally cites a solvency target of $150 million in reserves and several quarters in which the protocol's gross revenue exceeded $100 million.

For context it is worth looking at the surroundings. How USDS stands next to the large stablecoins authorised in Europe is shown by our overview of stablecoins with MiCA status. The difference between a stablecoin with European authorisation and one without becomes important further down.

Sky Savings Rate at 3.60 percent: how the yield on sUSDS arises

The Sky Savings Rate is the interest rate the protocol pays to holders of sUSDS. According to the protocol's home page the rate stands at 3.60 percent a year. Anyone swapping USDS into sUSDS thereby holds a token whose value rises slowly against USDS, instead of receiving an interest payment.

The money for it comes from two sources. One is the interest borrowers pay when they take out USDS against deposited collateral. The other is investments the protocol makes with its reserves, by now in conventional financial products as well. Cryptobriefing put cumulative distributions via sUSDS at more than $250 million, and the sum that so-called Sky Agents have steered into institutional strategies at $5.5 billion.

From this follows a feature that is often overlooked: the yield is not guaranteed. It is set by a vote of SKY holders and follows the protocol's earnings. If lending rates or the returns on the reserves fall, the rate can drop without a holder noticing anything before it is decided. Which platforms pay interest on crypto assets and what the terms there look like is set out in our comparison of staking and interest platforms.

SKY staking rate of 6.56 percent and stUSDS at 5.07 percent

Alongside the savings rate on the stablecoin, the protocol shows two further rates. For deposited SKY the home page names a staking rate of 6.56 percent a year, and for the token stUSDS 5.07 percent. Staking here means that the token is tied up in the protocol and in return takes part in the distribution of earnings.

These rates explain part of the price move. A governance token that is meant to carry an ongoing distribution is valued differently from one that merely embodies a voting right. If the protocol's proceeds rise, the amount available for distribution rises. The news site Tokenpost reported revenue of $436,321 within 24 hours for October 3, 2026. Extrapolated to a year that would be around $159 million, although such an extrapolation from a single day should be read with caution: one strong trading day distorts it upwards.

One point belongs clearly separated at this stage. The percentages named refer to earnings within the protocol, not to the price performance of SKY. Both can run in different directions at the same time.

Galaxy takes $100 million in sUSDS into its corporate treasury

On September 23, 2026, the asset manager Galaxy Digital announced a partnership with Sky and the Sky Frontier Foundation and placed $100 million in sUSDS in its own corporate treasury. Galaxy additionally accepts sUSDS as collateral in institutional lending, according to its own statement. Max Bareiss of Galaxy pointed out that institutional clients can thereby post sUSDS as collateral while continuing to collect the savings rate.

For investors, the interesting part is the mechanism rather than the sum. An interest-bearing stablecoin that doubles as collateral becomes, for large addresses, an instrument that replaces cash. That explains why the USDS supply grows in steps of several hundred million dollars and not in small amounts from retail business.

Caution requires looking at the other side: the more a stablecoin is carried by a few large holders, the stronger the effect when one of them exits. A concentration in a few addresses is the side effect of this kind of growth.

ESMA opinion of September 30: a ban on services around unauthorised stablecoins

In its response of September 30, 2026 to the review of the EU's MiCA regulation, the European securities regulator ESMA proposed to the European Commission that all crypto services requiring authorisation be banned where they concern stablecoins that do not meet the regulation's requirements. Custody and transfer fall expressly within that. In reporting on the opinion, USDT and USDC are named as examples.

Two qualifications matter so that no false urgency arises from this. First, this is a recommendation to the Commission and not applicable law; whether and when it becomes a legislative proposal is open. Second, on the state of reporting the proposal contains no implementation date, no exemption for paying out existing holdings and no wind-down mechanism. It is precisely this gap that is the real question for holders: how holdings get back to customers if a provider has to discontinue a service is not addressed in the opinion. We have compiled the state of the obligations for companies in our overview of the MiCA licence requirements.

What this means for USDS hangs on a question a holder can and should check themselves: whether the provider through which they hold the coin will still list it after the cut-off date. That information comes from the provider, not from the protocol.

MiCA and the purchase route: which providers list SKY and USDS in Germany

Since January 1, 2026, only authorised providers may offer services around crypto assets in Germany; the German transitional period for legacy providers ended on December 31, 2025 and thus earlier than the EU-wide deadline. In practice that means the purchase runs through a provider with CASP authorisation, and that provider's listing decides what is available at all.

For a token at number 50 that is no formality. The smaller a token, the more likely it is missing from the range of the regulated houses, and the sooner the route leads via a trading platform without European authorisation or via a decentralised exchange. Both shift the responsibility: without an authorised provider there is no complaints body in Germany, and when using a decentralised exchange custody rests entirely with the user.

Anyone considering leveraged products should calculate carefully with daily turnover of $21 million. In a thin market the execution price slips more than expected, and a liquidation thereby becomes more likely than the leverage figure alone suggests. A liquidation is the forced closure of a leveraged position when the collateral is no longer sufficient.

Holding period and tax: how earnings from sUSDS are treated in Germany

For private disposals of crypto assets, the one-year period currently still applies in Germany: anyone who holds for longer than a year pays no tax on the price gain. That remains the case as long as no new law is in force. Under the draft bill from the Federal Ministry of Finance that became known in September 2026, taxation is to cover only crypto assets acquired after December 31, 2026; the cabinet discussion was scheduled for October 14, 2026. Until then it is a draft and not applicable law.

Two things need to be kept apart with an interest-bearing stablecoin. The price gain from the sale of a token is something different in tax terms from an ongoing return that a protocol distributes. With sUSDS there is the added point that the return does not arrive as a payment but sits in the value of the token, which makes the classification harder. Anyone holding such positions clarifies the treatment with a tax adviser and documents every swap with date, quantity and price. Tools that record every transaction automatically take this work off your hands.

Levels at $0.1005 and $0.0872: weekly high, record and the round ten-cent mark

On the upside the first level to watch is the daily high of $0.09779, above that the round ten-cent mark and the record of $0.100535 from December 2024. These three values lie so close together that they effectively form a zone. If a closing price above it succeeds, the price is in unknown territory, because above it there is no history.

On the downside the daily low sits at $0.08724. Below that begins the zone from which the past week's move came. These are points to watch and not price targets; no forecast can be derived from them, and a recommendation even less so.

The dollar price is moreover not the price an investor in Germany sees. Sky trades at €0.085893. If the exchange rate moves, the euro calculation turns out differently from the dollar calculation, and in both directions.

Sky and USDS: How to proceed now

1. Clarify the purchase route before you trade. Check your provider's listing to see whether SKY is carried there at all, and whether the provider holds a European authorisation. An overview is given by the overview of regulated crypto exchanges.
2. Assess yield and custody separately. The savings rate of 3.60 percent and the staking rate of 6.56 percent can be changed by a vote. Check who holds your tokens in the meantime and whether you can withdraw them at any time. Comparative figures from other providers are in the comparison of staking and interest platforms.
3. Document every swap. Record the date, quantity and price for every transaction, including the swap of USDS into sUSDS. That is the basis for the one-year period and for whatever the legislator still decides by the end of the year. Suitable tools are listed by the comparison of tax and portfolio tools.

To read at the source: the rates for the savings rate, staking and stUSDS as well as the USDS supply are on the home page of the Sky protocol, and the state of European regulation on ESMA's MiCA page.

(As of October 4, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)