According to Blockworks, MakerDAO is contemplating a return to its original branding after the rebrand to Sky governance token faced significant challenges. The rebrand, announced in late August and implemented on September 24, allowed holders of the original MKR governance token to convert to the new SKY governance token at a 1-to-24,000 exchange rate. However, only about 10.7% of MKR token holders have made the conversion to SKY.
The USDS stablecoin, on the other hand, has seen positive growth, reaching a market cap of $1.26 billion. Rune Christensen, Makerâs co-founder, noted that the DeFi community has shown a strong preference for the MKR token over the new SKY token. As a result, the Maker team will vote on October 28 on three options: continuing with Sky as the core brand, reverting fully to Makerâs original brand identity, or returning to the original branding with minor updates to align it with USDS and the StarDAOs.
The redenomination from MKR to SKY was intended to make the token more appealing to retail investors by lowering its price per unit. However, this strategy has not been successful, as the SKY token has not been listed on centralized exchanges. To encourage conversion, Sky planned to offer rewards for staking SKY, but these incentives have been criticized as difficult to understand.
Critics have also pointed out that Maker spent $50 million on the rebrand, which they view as a failure. Christensen acknowledged the criticism but clarified that the entire sum was not spent solely on rebranding. He emphasized that the rebrand aimed to drive demand for the USDS stablecoin, which has been successful. Since the rebrand, Maker has launched several initiatives, including integrating USDS with Aave and expanding USDS to Solana and other Ethereum Layer 2 solutions.
