Coinbase gives Ethereum stablecoin Dai a big boost

By Liam Frost

Coinbase Commerce, a merchant-focused cryptocurrency payments platform developed by major US exchange Coinbase, now supports MakerDAO’s Ethereum-based stablecoin Dai (DAI). A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency with its price pegged to a fiat currency.

According to MakerDAO’s announcement, millions of new merchants and platforms will now get access to its stablecoin thanks to this move, including such giants as Shopify and WooCommerce. The announcement claims that even those two alone could expose over 800,000 stores and three million shops to Dai.

DAI is an Ethereum-based stablecoin. Image: Shutterstock.

MakerDAO also hopes to attract Coinbase Commerce’s clients to its stablecoin with Dai Savings Rate (DSR)—a feature that allows all Dai holders to earn savings automatically and natively. Merchants just could transfer their capital to DSR contract via the Maker Protocol to receive a yield of 7.5%.

Being a part of the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space—Ethereum’s “killer app” lately—Dai aims to “allow for inexpensive and more efficient and transparent financial products” since DeFi removes the need for third-party intermediaries. There are other potential savings for the customer too. For example, merchants do not pay fees to use Coinbase Commerce, which makes onboarding easier.

As Decrypt reported on January 15, the amount of Ethereum locked in DeFi surged to a new all-time high of $798 million. Just a month later, it’s already around $1.16 billion, though Ethereum’s price growth is the key factor here yet again. 

Among the top three DeFi projects with over $100 million worth of ETH locked up, decentralized lending app MakerDAO is still in the lead with $719 million, according to DeFi Pulse. And with the price of Ethereum going through the roof—that number is shooting up rapidly.

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