Dai

No token did more to prove that crypto collateral alone could hold a dollar peg than Dai. Live since 2017 and governed by the protocol now called Sky, formerly MakerDAO, it is minted when users lock collateral into smart contracts and borrow against it, keeping the system over-collateralized so the peg survives sharp market swings. Over the years its backing broadened from pure ETH toward a mix that includes other stablecoins and real-world assets, a shift that drew criticism for edging away from the fully decentralized ideal. There is no company to call for redemption; holders swap Dai through an onchain peg-stability module or repay loans to reclaim collateral, all permissionless and without KYC. Deployed across dozens of chains and woven through nearly every corner of DeFi, Dai remains the reference decentralized dollar even as newer designs chase its position.