Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered's Global Head of Digital Assets Research, anchored the bank's thesis on a single analogy. As cited by CoinTelegraph and Crypto Briefing, Kendrick described the protocol this way: "Sky resembles a federal bank. It issues stablecoins, sets governance-controlled interest rates, and charges wholesale borrowing costs to protocol users."

Sky is the rebranded version of MakerDAO, one of the oldest protocols in DeFi (decentralised finance, a category of financial services built on public blockchains). The rebrand launched in August 2024 under a strategic overhaul called Endgame. Under the new structure, MKR holders converted to SKY at a ratio of 1 MKR to 24,000 SKY, and the protocol's flagship stablecoin DAI was replaced by USDS on a one-to-one basis. Both legacy tokens remain in circulation and convertible.

Standard Chartered's report describes Sky as the third-largest stablecoin issuer globally, behind only Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), and the largest issuer of stablecoins that generate yield. The combined circulating supply of USDS and DAI sits at roughly $10 billion, backed by approximately $14.5 billion in collateral. That collateral mix includes crypto assets and real-world assets, primarily US Treasury instruments. Sky posted its strongest quarter on record in Q1 2026, generating $123.79 million in gross protocol revenue and $46.04 million in net surplus. Annualised fee revenue runs at roughly $400 million, according to Messari.

The yield-bearing side of Sky's stablecoin stack is called sUSDS (staked USDS), a token that functions as a savings wrapper. Users deposit USDS and receive sUSDS, which accrues yield funded by Treasury bill returns, borrowing fees from Sky's lending arm Spark, and stability fees paid by users who take out collateralised loans. The governance-set Sky Savings Rate stands at 3.75% annually, while the actual sUSDS APY at the time of the Standard Chartered report was 3.6%. The token holds $4.5 billion in total value locked and is accepted as collateral across Aave v3 (on Ethereum and Base), Spark Protocol, Morpho Blue, and several Curve and Balancer liquidity pools, reflecting its integration across the broader DeFi ecosystem. Kendrick noted that the primary mechanism for returning value to SKY holders is staking rewards, with token buybacks in a secondary role.

Standard Chartered's SKY coverage is the fourth in a series of formal DeFi initiations from Kendrick's team in 2026. The bank set a target of $3,500 for Aave by end-2030 in June, $60 for Morpho by end-2030 in July, and $200 for Chainlink by end-2030 in August. Each of those three earlier initiations centred on tokenised real-world asset infrastructure; SKY's coverage continues that thematic focus by connecting stablecoin issuance to US Treasury-backed collateral and the bank's separate forecast that tokenised assets on blockchain networks could reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028. By that same 2028 horizon, Kendrick projects SKY will keep pace with Ethereum (for which the bank holds an $18,000 target by end-2028) and outperform Bitcoin (target: $300,000 by end-2028).

For users in South Asia and Africa, the story extends well beyond price targets. Standard Chartered has a deeper operational footprint across these regions than most international banks, which gives its DeFi coverage an added signal value for local institutional investors and regulators who track traditional finance positioning on crypto. India, Nigeria, and Pakistan rank first, second, and third globally for crypto adoption, and all three depend heavily on cross-border remittances. India is the world's largest recipient of remittance flows, and the UAE-Pakistan corridor alone moves around $24 billion annually. Stablecoin transfers already undercut traditional bank wire fees significantly, typically running at 1 to 3 percent compared to 6 percent or more through conventional channels.

The governance-set Sky Savings Rate of 3.75% and the actual sUSDS APY of 3.6% at the time of the Standard Chartered report are both materially more attractive than local currency savings options in markets where inflation has eroded purchasing power. Pakistan's inflation has exceeded 25%, and survey data from Nigeria show that 95% of users prefer stablecoin savings over holding the naira. A key barrier remains: accessing sUSDS today requires non-custodial wallet infrastructure and some familiarity with DeFi platforms. USDT holds roughly 88.5% of stablecoin activity in Nigeria's market, and USDS has not yet approached comparable scale outside of protocol-level DeFi use. Pakistan launched a regulatory sandbox for stablecoin-based remittances in late 2025, which could open a licensed pathway for USDS adoption, but no regional regulatory framework has yet addressed yield-bearing stablecoins specifically. In India, the largest crypto adoption market globally, a 30% flat tax on digital asset gains combined with a 1% tax deducted at source on transactions continues to act as a deterrent to retail DeFi participation.

Standard Chartered's forecast rests on continued growth in USDS adoption and an expansion of borrowing activity on the Sky platform. Whether that growth comes from DeFi-native protocols or from broader consumer and institutional uptake in emerging markets may determine whether the $0.325 target is a conservative floor or a ceiling.