MakerDAO should 'seriously consider' depegging DAI from USD: Founder

cointelegraph.com:

MakerDAO founder Rune Chirstensen has urged members of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to “seriously consider” preparing for the depeg of its DAI stablecoin from the United States dollar (USD).

The founder’s comments came in light of the recently announced sanctions on crypto mixer Tornado Cash, noting to MakerDAO’s Discord channel on Aug. 11 that the sanctions are “unfortunately more serious than I first thought,” adding that they should prepare to depeg its native stablecoin DAI from the USD to avoid any risk’s relating to Circle’s recent freezing of sanctioned USD Coin (USDC) addresses.

On Aug. 8, the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) officially barred residents from using the Tornado Cash protocol, while placing 44 USDC addresses linked with the platform on its list of Specially Designated Nationals.

Following the move, USDC issuers Circle froze $75,000 worth of the stablecoin linked to the 44 sanctioned addresses.

rune: we should seriously consider depegging from usd pic.twitter.com/HBMrPH7LrW

Around 50.1% of MakerDAO’s DAI is collateralized by USDC (according to Dai Stats) Christensen has raised concerns over the asset’s heavy reliance on a centralized asset in USDC, as Circle has shown that it will act in accordance with United States law in the case of Tornado Cash.

DAI is currently the fourth largest USD-pegged stablecoin in crypto with its current market cap of $7 billion, and the figure places it as the fifteen largest asset overall.

Following the call, Yearn.finance core developer @bantg suggested that MakerDAO was considering converting all its USDC from its peg stability module into $3.5 billion in ETH, which would result in more than 50% of DAI being backed by Ether (ETH), a massive