In a surprising turn of events, Sky’s proposal to rebrand back to Maker has been rejected in a governance vote dominated by four whales. The decision, announced on November 8, comes after Sky’s previous rebranding in August, which saw the replacement of Maker’s governance token MKR with SKY and the renaming of the protocol’s stablecoin DAI to Sky Dollar.
According to data from the Sky governance forum, only 18.5% of votes supported the change to recenter the Maker brand with a limited refresh, while a little over 2.2% of users voted in favor of fully restoring the “Maker” brand to its original form. The majority of the voting power was controlled by just four whales, who contributed a combined 98% of the total votes in favor of retaining the Sky brand.
The rejection of the rebranding proposal has sparked mixed reactions within the community. Some members have expressed concerns about the confusion stemming from the rebranding, with many users unclear about the utility of the Sky token. On the other hand, supporters of the Sky branding have emphasized the protocol’s Endgame roadmap proposed by Maker co-founder Rune Christensen in 2022 and the broader vision behind the rebrand.
In a post on November 4, Framework Ventures co-founder Vance Spencer highlighted the potential benefits of Sky’s rebrand, including plans to launch decentralized and regulatory-compliant stablecoins, integrate with platforms like Aave, and roll out new features on Solana and Ethereum Layer 2. Despite challenges such as timing and limited exchange support, Spencer expressed confidence in the project’s long-term vision and the value to be unearthed by following the Endgame roadmap.
Overall, the community’s response to the rejection of the rebranding proposal has been positive, with both MKR and SKY experiencing a price increase of over 3% at the time of writing. The future direction of the Sky protocol and its branding strategy remains uncertain, but it is clear that the influence of whales in governance decisions continues to be a significant factor in the cryptocurrency space.