sUSDS Review 2026: What the Sky Savings Rate Actually Pays

sUSDS pays 3.6% a year as of 13 September 2026. EarnPark's published figure for USDT was up to 15% APY when this was written, and up to 10% on USDC, both readable on those pages rather than taken on trust from here.

Those two numbers are not directly comparable, and most of this review is about why. sUSDS is the savings token of Sky, the protocol formerly known as MakerDAO, and its rate is not set by a market. It is set by a governance vote. That single fact explains more about what you are buying than any risk disclosure on the page.

There is a second thing worth stating early. In August 2025, S&P Global Ratings assigned Sky Protocol a B- issuer credit rating, the first credit rating a major agency has ever given a DeFi protocol. B- sits below investment grade. Almost none of the pages ranking for this search mention it, and the ones that do treat it as a milestone rather than as information about what happens to your deposit.

Neither of those facts makes sUSDS a bad product. It is the savings rate of the third-largest dollar stablecoin, S&P credits the protocol with a good track record of limited credit losses since 2020, and it withdraws on demand. But a review that skips both is describing a yield without describing the thing paying it.

What Sky is

Sky is the rebranded Maker Protocol, the Ethereum lending system that launched DAI in 2017 and spent years as one of the largest collateral-backed stablecoins in crypto. The rebrand to Sky arrived in 2024, bringing a new stablecoin called USDS alongside the existing DAI, and a new governance token called SKY alongside MKR.

USDS is created when a borrower locks up approved assets as security and draws the stablecoin against them, the same mechanism Maker used for DAI. Per DefiLlama, USDS circulating supply was about 6.7 billion dollars on 13 September 2026, which places it behind Tether and USDC and ahead of DAI. Sky held about 5.6 billion dollars of assets deposited across the protocol on the same date.

sUSDS is what you get when you deposit USDS into Sky's savings module. It is a yield-bearing token whose value against USDS rises over time rather than paying out a separate stream, so the balance you hold stays the same while what it redeems for grows. There is no lock period and no notice period. You can exit whenever the Ethereum network will process the transaction, and you pay gas to do it.

How the Sky Savings Rate is set

This is the part the explainers skip, and it matters more than the current number.

Sky governance votes on the rate paid to sUSDS holders, and the protocol funds it from revenue earned elsewhere. The largest sources are interest charged to borrowers who locked assets to draw USDS, and income from Sky's own holdings of USDC and tokenised government debt. When those sources earn less, the choice in front of governance is broadly between lowering the savings rate and paying depositors out of accumulated reserves.

Through late 2025 and the first half of 2026 it chose to cut. Per DefiLlama's rate history for the sUSDS pool, checked 13 September 2026.

The rate is down roughly a quarter from where it stood a year earlier. The decline was not a straight line and it has not continued, with the rate bottoming near 3.5% in the middle of 2026 and edging back up since. Broadly it moves with dollar interest rates, which is what you would expect from a product whose revenue comes from lending dollars.

In practice that means the sUSDS yield is variable. Governance can raise or cut it at any time, and it does not have to ask individual holders first. That is not a hidden risk, it is the design. But a reader who saw 4.75% last year and assumed they had locked something in was mistaken about what they held.

What S&P actually said

On 7 August 2025, S&P Global Ratings assigned Sky Protocol a B- issuer credit rating with a stable outlook, in its published rating action. It was the first time a major ratings agency had rated a DeFi protocol at all.

Start with what is actually being graded, because coverage tends to blur it. S&P is rating Sky's ability to make good on what it owes holders of the USDS and DAI stablecoins and the sUSDS and sDAI savings tokens. It defines a default on those as "a haircut imposed upon holders", meaning holders getting back less than they were owed. So the grade is not about Sky's brand or its technology. It is an estimate of how likely you are to take a loss on the thing you are holding.

The rating is also explicitly silent on some things. S&P says it "does not address the value of the protocol's governance tokens (SKY and MKR)", nor of the other tokens designed to absorb losses before sUSDS holders would.

Being rated at all is to Sky's credit. Opening the books to a ratings agency and accepting a public grade gives holders a form of third-party credit analysis that few products in this space make available.

The grade itself is less comfortable. B- sits in the speculative range, below investment grade, and S&P names four weaknesses behind it. Deposits are concentrated among relatively few holders. Governance is in what it calls a period of significant transition, with "high reliance on the founder". The legal status of DeFi protocols is unsettled. And the capital buffer is thin once the risks on Sky's balance sheet are weighed against it. Against those it credits Sky with a good track record of limited credit losses since 2020 and modest earnings, while judging the earnings capacity itself weak because the revenue depends on crypto market cycles.

S&P is specific about what would actually cause a loss, and names two routes. The first is more people trying to withdraw at once than Sky holds ready cash to pay, that reserve being held in USDC, a stablecoin issued by another company entirely. In ordinary language that is a bank run. The second is losses on the loan book running past the capital set aside to absorb them.

So the honest summary is that sUSDS pays 3.6% while exposing you to the chance that Sky's assets or its cash buffer do not fully cover what holders are owed, and that exposure has been independently assessed and published rather than left to guesswork. Whether that is a good trade is a judgement, but it is at least a judgement you can make with real information, which is more than most of this category offers.

Fees and mechanics

Sky charges no deposit or withdrawal fee on the savings module. What you pay is the Ethereum network fee on the way in and the way out, which varies with network conditions and is the main reason small deposits underperform the headline rate. On a few hundred dollars, two transactions at a busy moment can cost more than the position earns in its first months, which sets a practical floor on the size worth depositing whatever the protocol itself allows.

sUSDS also runs on Arbitrum, OP Mainnet and Unichain, which are lower cost networks that settle back to Ethereum, and the rate is the same 3.6% on each. Per DefiLlama on 13 September 2026, about 4.6 billion dollars of sUSDS sat on Ethereum against roughly 363 million on Arbitrum and far less elsewhere, so most holders are still paying Ethereum fees.

Sky describes the savings rate as a protocol rate funded from its overall surplus, so the figure does not vary with the size of your deposit. The rate and much of the protocol's collateral data can be inspected on chain. That visibility is real, though it does not by itself verify the valuation, legal claim or redemption liquidity of every underlying asset.

How the rates compare

The table below compares published rates, risk labels and withdrawal terms. It does not rank the two on safety, because a rate comparison cannot settle that question.

Figures for EarnPark are from its live asset pages and in-app strategy terms, checked 13 September 2026. Sky's figure is from DefiLlama on the same date. Maker Core and DeFi are EarnPark strategy names, and the Low and Medium labels are EarnPark's own risk classifications rather than external ratings, so they are not comparable with Sky's S&P grade. What follows is a snapshot of rates and terms rather than a safety ranking, and each column leaves you holding a different stablecoin.

Two caveats belong next to that table rather than underneath it.

The first is that EarnPark's headline 15% on USDT is not the row above. That figure comes from our high risk Alpha Vault strategy, where returns settle monthly, so it is not built for money you may need back quickly. The 10% rows avoid setting Sky's rate against our highest risk product, but they are still not identical to it, because the stablecoin you end up holding differs in each column.

The second is the release period. EarnPark's low risk Maker Core strategies hold funds for 30 days after you request a withdrawal, cancellable in the first 24 hours, with yield accruing at the full rate throughout. sUSDS has no equivalent and exits in a single transaction. The trade is access speed against rate, and the two products have taken opposite sides of it.

Where EarnPark differs is the published rate itself. The figure on our asset pages is what a user receives with no PARK held, and our token lifts it further for holders rather than being the route to it. Which stablecoin you start from also changes the answer, and we have written separately on USDC against USDT for anyone still deciding.

Where else the same dollar can go

sUSDS sits in a crowded part of the market, and the alternatives differ more in where the yield comes from than in the headline number.

Lending protocols pay you the interest borrowers are charged, which floats with borrowing demand and can sit below the Sky rate in quiet markets. Aave is among the largest of them and its v4 release changed how that market is structured. The trade against sUSDS is that a lending rate moves with borrower demand inside parameters the protocol sets, rather than being fixed directly as a savings rate by a vote, which cuts in both directions.

Some services let you trade a variable yield for a fixed return over a set period, so you lock a known rate instead of accepting whatever governance sets next quarter. Pendle is the best known venue for it, and a fixed position is one of the few ways to remove the reset risk that sUSDS carries by design.

Tokenised treasury products pass through the return on short-term government debt, so the credit behind them belongs to an issuer rather than to a protocol. Ondo is one route and the broader tokenised real-world asset market has grown quickly. Several of them require identity checks and restrict who can hold them, so eligibility is worth checking before the rate is.

Managed platforms such as EarnPark run strategies on your behalf and publish a rate per strategy with its own risk label. We keep a running comparison of stablecoin yields across platforms, and a broader guide to what stablecoins are and how yield is generated on them if the mechanics are the part you want first. For the DeFi end of the same question, our roundup of yield farming platforms covers the higher-variance options.

Sorting between them comes down to two questions before it comes down to rate. Whether you want to hold the position yourself or have a platform run it, and how quickly you need the money back. Answer those and most of the list above rules itself out.

Who sUSDS is best for

sUSDS suits a holder who already owns USDS or DAI, wants a dollar yield without opening an account with a centralised platform, and values being able to leave at any moment more than they value the rate. It is genuinely good at that. Sky's own description is "full liquidity with no lockups" and no fee to enter or exit, the savings contracts are open to inspection, and the position stays in your own wallet.

It also suits anyone who wants their yield source to be legible. Sky discloses a relatively understandable revenue model built on overcollateralised lending and treasury holdings, and S&P credits it with limited credit losses since 2020, though past performance removes none of the smart contract, governance or collateral risk that sits underneath.

It suits you less if the rate is the point. At 3.6%, sUSDS compensates you for smart contract risk, governance risk, Sky's credit risk and exposure to a stablecoin the protocol issues itself. Whether that is enough depends on what else your dollar could be doing. Being able to withdraw instantly is worth something, but it is not worth an unlimited amount.

It also suits you less if you hold small balances on Ethereum, where gas can eat a double-digit share of the first year's yield.

Verdict on sUSDS vs EarnPark

sUSDS does what it says. It pays a disclosed rate on USDS, the savings contracts are open to inspection, and you can leave in a single transaction with no fee charged by Sky. For a holder who already owns USDS and puts instant exit above everything else, that is a working answer and this review is not an argument against it.

The question worth putting is whether 3.6% is what that dollar should be earning. EarnPark publishes 10% on USDC and on USDT, those are the figures a user receives with no PARK held, and every strategy states its own risk label and withdrawal terms in the app before you deposit anything. The low risk route to that 10% asks for a 30 day bonding period, cancellable in the first day, with yield accruing at full rate throughout. Instant access is worth paying for. Whether it is worth giving up most of the rate is the actual decision, and the two products are at least honest about which side of it each has taken.

If you want to model the difference on your own balance before committing anything, the yield calculator runs both rates over whatever period you choose, and our reserve disclosures and trust page are where the platform-level detail sits.

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