MakerDAO Votes to Halt Lending to Tokenized Credit Pool After $2M Loan Default

DAI stablecoin issuer MakerDAO’s community has decided to halt lending to a tokenized credit pool on the Centrifuge protocol after accruing $2.1 million of loan defaults.

In a governance vote that concluded Thursday at 12 p.m. (ET), voters unanimously favored stopping additional lending to the embattled credit pool, managed by fintech firm Harbor Trade. Maker is led by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), where those who hold MKR tokens can participate in governance decisions.

“While Harbor Trade has verbally committed to cease additional draws and voluntarily wind down the vault, community members have expressed concern about the existing 7 million debt ceiling and the risk of potentially increasing exposure to this vault,” a MakerDAO governance post said.

Maker’s $4.6 billion stablecoin DAI is backed by debt positions overcollateralized by cryptocurrencies, and increasingly, tokenized versions of loans and bonds, to earn a yield.

The Harbor Trade credit pool minted some $1.5 million of DAI stablecoins from MakerDAO and secured them with loans made to a consumer electronics firm. The borrower firm failed to pay down $2.1 million of debt matured in April.

Harbor Trade is “actively engaged in the workout process” and forecasts “a meaningful or full recovery,” according to MakerDAO, but the procedure could take six months or more.