S&P Global Ratings has published a B- (Stable Outlook) issuer credit rating for Sky Protocol, previously known as Maker Protocol, marking the first time a credit rating agency has issued a credit rating for a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocol. The news highlights the growing adoption of decentralized financial systems within the broader financial landscape.
Sky Protocol is a decentralized lending protocol on the Ethereum blockchain that creates a stablecoin, USDS, when a borrower takes out a loan against a formally accepted collateral type.
It also allows users to deposit their USDS stablecoins into savings vaults (akin to deposits) and receive savings tokens (savings USDS or sUSDS). With a market cap of $7.1 billion, USDS is now the third largest stablecoin, trailing only USDT ($158 billion) and USDC ($62 billion).
Jonathan Manley, Global Head of Market Outreach, S&P Global Ratings, said: “The issuance of a first ever credit rating on a DeFi protocol represents a significant milestone in the evolution of decentralized finance. It underscores our commitment to enhancing transparency in the DeFi ecosystem, providing investors with high quality insights to make informed decisions in this rapidly evolving market.”
This credit rating provides a structured assessment of creditworthiness for protocols that have traditionally operated outside of conventional financial frameworks.
Headquartered in New York, S&P Global is a global provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. You can read more about S&P’s ratings scale here.
