According to data from Makerburn.com, Stablecoin publisher Maker Protocol’s annualized revenue rose to a new record of $203 million yesterday.
The previous peak was $172.3 million in May 2021.
Maker is a stable currency issuance platform Ethereum, governed by the MakerDAO community consisting of MKR token holders. The provision of the protocol’s stablecoin, DAIreached a new annual high of $5.6 billion, according to data from Makerburn.com.
Maker makes money through fees that users pay for borrowing DAI, and fees earned in the event of liquidation of a borrowing position.
The increase in revenue came amid increased deposits of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) for minting DAI and higher yields for DAI holders (which in turn attracts even more collateral).
Tokenized RWAs are crypto tokens backed by physical or real financial assets such as stocks, government bonds, real estate or art.
MakerDAO’s RWA deposits have soared above $3 billion, representing 42.7% of the protocol’s total deposits of $7.54 billion, according to DeFiLlama data.
Sébastien Derivaux, former chief financial officer of MakerDAO and co-founder of Steakhouse Financial, said Declutter that MakerDAO is “reaping the benefits of years of work on RWA,” adding that “revenues will rise as Treasury yields rise.”
Treasury bills are currently yielding 5% for holders as the Federal Reserve raises rates to tackle US inflation
Of the RWA deposits, two vaults in Monetalis Clydesdale and BlockTower Andromeda, which buys short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, collectively make up more than three-quarters of RWA deposits within the Maker Protocol, according to a Dune dashboard from data analyst Steakhouse.
RWA deposits from the creator. Source: Dune
The rise in US Treasury yields this year, against the backdrop of higher interest rates by the US Federal Reserve, has played a major role in boosting revenues from the protocol.
Revenue opportunities for DAI holders
Higher returns for DAI holders through the DAI Savings Rate (DSR) mechanism via the Spark Protocol have also contributed to the high demand for DAI.
DSR generates revenue for DAI holders from the protocol fees paid by users who deposit assets into Maker to generate new DAI.
The DAI poured into the Spark Protocol is represented as sDAI and accounts for 31.3% of DAI’s total $1.7 billion supply.
Stablecoin deposits to Maker increase as DAI interest rates reach 8%
sDAI supply has increased more than fivefold from approximately $340 million since August, when the Maker community voted to increase sDAI revenue. Its holders currently earn an annual rate of 5% from DSR deposits.
DSR deposits got another boost last week, with the launch of sDAI on Gnosis Chain.
On October 9, Spark Protocol was deployed to Gnosis Chain, with the offering since increasing from $20 million to nearly $50 million, according to data from DeFiLlama. These holders collapse sDAI DeFi protocols on the Gnosis Chain for improved yields.
Edited by Stephen Graves