The original decentralised dollar. Minted against overcollateralised vaults and stability modules, with all collateral verifiable on-chain.
Supply history
Safety score: 80/100 — Strong
Back reserves are transparent, redemption is direct, and the peg has held through stress.
Full methodology →- Collateral quality & transparency (30%)84
What actually backs the token and how often it is verified. Treasury-backed with daily or on-chain proof scores highest; unattested reserves score lowest.
- Peg stability (25%)76
Live deviation from $1.00 plus the worst historical depeg on record. A single deep depeg keeps weighing on the score.
- Liquidity depth (20%)70
Tracked on-chain pool liquidity in absolute dollars and as a share of circulating supply — how much can exit before the price moves.
- Issuer & legal structure (15%)82
Regulatory status of the issuer and whether holders have a direct redemption right or only a secondary market exit.
- Track record (10%)97
Years in production, minus documented incidents.
Issuer & structure
- Regulatory regime
- No prudential regimesource
- Issuer
- Sky (formerly MakerDAO)
- Jurisdiction
- Decentralised / Cayman foundation
- Collateral
- crypto-overcollateralized
- Peg mechanism
- crypto-backed
- Attestation
- onchain
- Redemption
- direct
- Issuer can freeze balances
- No — no freeze function
- Attestor
- —
- Launched
- 2017
- Website
- Official site
Where to get DAI
Every venue that sells Dai, ranked by what a purchase actually costs once fees, spread and the withdrawal to your chain are counted.
Cheapest route: OKX — you receive about $998 of DAI from $1,000 (0.17% all-in, delivered on X Layer).
| Venue | Type | Fee | Spread | Withdrawal | All-in cost | You receive | Verified | Go |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exchange | 0.10% | 0.06% | $0 X Layer | $2 0.17% | $998 | 2026-08-05 stale — verify at checkout Fee accurate? | Buy on OKX | |
| Exchange | 0.20% | 0.05% | $1 Solana | $3 0.30% | $997 | 2026-08-12 stale — verify at checkout Fee accurate? | Buy on Kraken | |
| Exchange | 0.60% | 0.50% | $0 Base | $11 1.10% | $989 | 2026-08-12 stale — verify at checkout Fee accurate? | Buy on Coinbase | |
| Neobank | 1.00% | 0.60% | $1 Polygon | $17 1.65% | $984 | 2026-07-25 stale — verify at checkout Fee accurate? | Buy on Wirex | |
| On-ramp | 0.99% | 0.90% | direct to wallet | $19 1.89% | $981 | 2026-08-11 stale — verify at checkout Fee accurate? | Buy on Transak | |
| On-ramp | 1.00% + $4 | 1.00% | direct to wallet | $24 2.40% | $976 | 2026-08-11 stale — verify at checkout Fee accurate? | Buy on MoonPay | |
| On-ramp | 1.50% | 1.20% | direct to wallet | $27 2.70% | $973 | 2026-07-28 stale — verify at checkout Fee accurate? | Buy on Banxa |
Estimates built from published fee schedules — the final price is shown at venue checkout. Partner links never change this ranking.
Put it to work
No yield on DAI currently clears our vetting bar ($100M+ TVL, 1yr+ track record). Rates below that bar exist — see the yield hub for the unvetted list and why we separate them.
Alternatives worth knowing
- Safer siblingUSDG +13 safety score
+2.0pp yield versus DAI, and less depth on some chains.
- Earning siblingUSDC 79.4% APY built in
Safety score 88 vs 80 — the yield is compensation for that gap.
- Cheaper to moveDAI on Polygon cents per transfer
Ethereum transfers of the same token cost dollars. Bridging across costs time, and Polygon has thinner venue support.
Spend it
- Monolith
None structural
Visit Monolith
Incident history
- 2020-03Black Thursday liquidation failure+10.0%
- 2023-03USDC contagion via PSM−7.4%
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