Historical retrospective · Stablecoins
Centralized collateral entered decentralized stablecoin systems
Maker governance added USDC as collateral during 2020, showing how a decentralized stablecoin system could rely partly on centrally issued assets.
The move responded to liquidity and stability concerns but made the system’s collateral mix more diverse and more dependent on external controls.
DeFi’s boundary between decentralized contracts and centralized financial infrastructure proved more porous than slogans suggested.
A token’s role inside a protocol does not erase issuer freeze powers, redemption limits or jurisdictional dependencies.
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