MakerDAO launches emergency proposal to limit USDC exposure

Quick Take

  • MakerDAO issued an emergency proposal to limit exposure to USDC tail risk after the stablecoin depegged overnight.
  • MakerDAO encouraged MKR holders and delegates to review and support the proposed changes as soon as possible.

MakerDAO’s risk unit issued an emergency proposal to its governance community following the depegging of the USDC stablecoin after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Maker is the DeFi lending protocol that issues the decentralized stablecoin DAI. Being 54.5% backed by USDC, DAI has also been caught up in USDC’s depegging event and is currently trading at $0.93.

The risk unit proposed several urgent changes to limit Maker’s exposure to potentially impaired stablecoins and other risky collateral while maintaining sufficient liquidity to sustain DAI’s peg and ensure the Maker Protocol can process potential liquidations of crypto-collateralized vaults.

The proposals include reducing the maximum amount of DAI that can be borrowed against specific collateral, reducing daily mint limits, increasing fees to discourage dumping of USDC and eliminating exposure to other DeFi protocols.

MakerDAO said it encouraged “MKR holders and delegates to review and support this executive vote with the purpose of deploying the aforementioned parameter changes to the Maker Protocol as soon as possible.

“Once the executive vote is approved by MKR holders and delegates, the proposed changes will be deployed to the Maker Protocol within the next 48 hours,“ it added.

RELATED INDICES

DAI/USD chart by CoinGecko

Earlier in the day, MakerDAO tweeted: “Total collateralization of the system is at 154% with $8.26 billion worth of collateral backing 5.38 billion DAI. No liquidations have been triggered during the last week. The system is working as expected and always has been. Maker Protocol's code is law for DAI stability.”

USDC lost its peg to the U.S. dollar overnight, dropping as low as $0.88 following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The crypto market was frustrated with its issuer, Circle, over a lack of transparency regarding its exposure to the bank, which Circle eventually confirmed as being $3.3 billion of its approximately $40 billion USDC reserves.


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About Author

James Hunt is a reporter at The Block, based in the UK. As the writer behind The Daily newsletter, James also keeps you up to speed on the latest crypto news every weekday. Prior to joining The Block in 2022, James spent four years as a freelance writer in the industry, contributing to both publications and crypto project content. James’ coverage spans everything from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Layer 2 scaling solutions, avant-garde DeFi protocols, evolving DAO governance structures, trending NFTs and memecoins, regulatory landscapes, crypto company deals and the latest market updates. You can get in touch with James on Telegram or X via @humanjets or email him at [email protected].

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