Dai (Ethereum) (DAI): questions and answers
Every answer below is written from the sources listed at the end of this page, with the date each one was checked.
The question that decides how you read Dai (Ethereum)
DAI was designed so that no company could freeze it. The question its own history poses is what happens when the most reliable way to hold a peg is to hold a lot of a stablecoin that can be frozen.
The founding idea was a dollar without a dollar issuer: lock volatile crypto collateral worth more than you borrow, mint DAI against it, and let liquidation auctions enforce the backing. No bank, no reserve account, no company able to block a transfer.
The weakness is in the word volatile. Over-collateralisation works until prices fall faster than the liquidation machinery can respond — which is exactly what happened.
What is still unsettled
The censorship-resistance claim is the live argument. When a large share of collateral is a stablecoin whose issuer can freeze addresses, DAI's independence is conditional on that issuer's behaviour, as the August 2022 sanctions freeze made vivid. The Sky restructuring changed the branding and the token set; it did not settle the underlying dependency, and the community has continued to argue about both.
What this means when you swap DAI
DAI itself carries no blacklist function, so the token cannot be frozen at the contract level the way USDT and USDC can. That is a genuine difference and the main reason people choose it — but it does not make DAI risk-free, because its backing includes assets that can be frozen.
Operationally it behaves like any ERC-20 asset: native to Ethereum, present on other chains through official and third-party bridges, and dependent on the destination chain's gas token to move. Since 2024 a second Sky stablecoin exists alongside DAI with conversion between them, so confirm which token a platform actually credits.
Common DAI questions
- How do I swap Dai (Ethereum) (DAI) instantly on Monivo?
- Pick DAI as the asset you want to receive, choose what you're paying with, paste your wallet address, and confirm. Monivo routes your order to the provider offering the best rate, and most swaps complete in under 10 minutes — no account needed.
- Can I swap DAI with no KYC?
- Yes. Crypto-to-crypto swaps of DAI on Monivo require no identity verification and no sign-up. Only fiat purchases (card or bank transfer) require KYC, because banks and payment processors mandate it.
- Is swapping Dai (Ethereum) on Monivo non-custodial?
- Yes. Monivo never holds your funds. DAI is sent directly to the wallet address you provide, so you stay in control the whole time.
- Which network does DAI use here?
- Monivo supports Dai (Ethereum) on the ETH network. Always double-check that your receiving wallet supports this network before confirming.
- What fees apply when I swap DAI?
- Monivo adds zero fees on top. The quote you see already reflects the best aggregated rate across connected providers, including their network and processing costs — all fees are included in the shown amount.
- Can DAI be frozen like USDC or USDT?
- The DAI token contract has no issuer blacklist, so balances cannot be frozen at the token level. Its collateral, however, includes centralised stablecoins that can be frozen, so the protocol's backing is exposed to that risk even though your balance is not directly.
- What happened to DAI on Black Thursday in March 2020?
- A sharp Ether crash plus Ethereum congestion caused liquidations at stale prices, and some collateral auctions cleared with effectively no competing bids, leaving several million dollars of DAI unbacked. The shortfall was covered by auctioning MKR, and the auction mechanism was redesigned afterwards.
- Is DAI the same as the newer Sky stablecoin?
- They are separate tokens from the same protocol. MakerDAO rebranded to Sky in 2024 and launched a new stablecoin and governance token while DAI and MKR remained in circulation with conversion available. Check which one a service expects before depositing.
Sources and dates (7)
- Maker's Peg Stability Module documentation sets out the governance rationale for stablecoin collateral. MakerDAO governance manual · checked 2026-09-22
- The March 2020 crash produced liquidations at stale prices and auctions that cleared with effectively zero bids. Contemporaneous incident timeline · 2020-03-12 · reported, not independently confirmed · checked 2026-09-22
- MakerDAO rebranded to Sky and launched a parallel stablecoin and governance token in 2024. CoinDesk · 2024-08-27 · checked 2026-09-22
- A governance poll addressed recentring the Maker brand after community pushback on the rebrand. MakerDAO governance portal · 2024-11-04 · checked 2026-09-22
- IQ.wiki's dated milestones record DAI's launch in December 2017. IQ.wiki · reported, not independently confirmed · checked 2026-09-23
- Messari describes DAI as Maker's collateral-backed, dollar-targeted stablecoin. Messari · reported, not independently confirmed · checked 2026-09-23
- CoinGecko maintains the live market page for DAI. CoinGecko · reported, not independently confirmed · checked 2026-09-23