sDAI: What It Is, How Yield Works, and Is It Safe?
Verdict first: sDAI earns an RWTS Trust Score of T3 (72/100). It is a credible, battle-tested yield-bearing stablecoin backed by the same collateral system as DAI, but it is now the legacy track. Most of Sky's savings capital has migrated to sUSDS, which scores marginally higher at T3 (74/100). If you still hold sDAI, it keeps earning, but you should understand why the ecosystem has moved on.
RWTS rates tokens; we don't shill them. Here is how sDAI works, where its yield comes from, and whether it still deserves a place in a 2026 stablecoin allocation.
What is sDAI?
sDAI is the staked form of DAI, the decentralized stablecoin from MakerDAO, now rebranded as Sky. When you deposit DAI, you receive sDAI, which accrues the DAI Savings Rate automatically. You do not claim rewards; the sDAI-to-DAI exchange rate simply rises over time.
The rebrand is the key context. Sky launched sUSDS in September 2024 alongside the MakerDAO-to-Sky rebrand. It is the direct successor to sDAI (the DAI Savings Rate token) and the two coexist while Sky migrates liquidity. So sDAI did not disappear; it became the backward-compatibility option.
Where does sDAI yield come from?
This is the single most important question with any yield-bearing stablecoin, and sDAI has one of the more conservative answers in the category. sDAI yield comes from the legacy DSR. The DAI Savings Rate is a separate parameter Sky governance maintains for DAI holders. Mechanically the DSR is funded the same way as the SSR (CDP fees plus RWA), but the rate is administered separately.
In plain terms: Sky lends against collateral and allocates reserves into tokenized Treasuries, then passes a governance-set share of that income to sDAI holders. The rate is not a market rate. It is a vote. Sky governance votes on SSR through executive proposals. The rate generally tracks Fed funds plus a spread reflecting RWA and crypto-lending demand. Governance can deviate.
That history is worth knowing because the rate has swung hard. sDAI's Dai Savings Rate peaked at 11.25% in January 2025 and held at 1.25% through August 2026, governed by Sky votes, not market rates, while the live Sky Savings Rate on sUSDS pays around 3.5%. A governance-set rate can be generous or thin depending on what Sky is trying to incentivize at the time. If you underwrite sDAI, you are underwriting Sky governance, not a fixed coupon.
Is sDAI safe?
sDAI earns T3 (72/100) on our methodology. The backing is the same collateral engine that has secured DAI for years. The peg for both USDS and DAI is maintained by the same collateral system. Sky's vaults accept ETH, staked ETH, real world asset allocations, and USDC through the peg stability module. Whenever DAI or USDS trades above $1, arbitrageurs mint new supply against collateral and sell at a premium. Below $1, vault owners buy back at a discount to close debt.
The T3 tier reflects a product that is proven and transparent but carries real risk surface: smart-contract exposure, governance discretion over the rate, and the collateral mix's own volatility. It is not a tokenized Treasury with a single NAV. It is a decentralized CDP system with a savings layer on top.
sDAI vs sUSDS: the migration that already happened
The practical decision for most holders is whether to move to sUSDS. The capital has largely voted already. Most onchain capital that previously sat in sDAI has since migrated into sUSDS or wrapped USDS directly. Total USDS supply sits between $9 to $11B per DeFiLlama, with roughly half staked into sUSDS. By contrast, sDAI at its peak was a far smaller pool. 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.
Why would Sky engineer this? To steer flows. Sky governance wants new flows to land in USDS and sUSDS, so SSR carries a premium to DSR. That premium is the structural reason sUSDS edges out sDAI on both yield and our Trust Score. For the full breakdown of that migration and its safety implications, see our companion piece, sDAI Yield Migration to sUSDS: Safety Explained.
Migration itself is frictionless. Both DAI and USDS remain fully redeemable through the Maker / Sky modules, and DAI to USDS conversion is one-for-one via the Sky upgrade contract.
The bottom line
If sUSDS carries the premium rate, native integrations, and a marginally higher Trust Score, the default answer for new capital is sUSDS. The honest case for sDAI is narrow: you already hold it, your protocol stack still speaks DAI, and the rate gap at the moment is not worth the transaction. Check the live SSR and DSR before you decide; a governance-set spread is not a constant.
For how sDAI sits against custodial options like USDC and the rest of the yield-bearing field, start at our stablecoin yield hub.
RWTS isn't bullish or bearish on any stablecoin. We're the credit-rating agency for tokenized real assets. We rate. You decide.
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