Polkadot community votes on DOT backed native stablecoin dotUSD

Polkadot’s community has opened a governance vote on a native decentralized stablecoin called dotUSD, with a proposal to make the dollar-pegged asset the network’s primary stable-value instrument and eventually back it mainly with DOT.

Summary

• Polkadot OpenGov is voting on a proposal to create dotUSD as the network’s native decentralized stablecoin.
• The plan calls for $5 million in initial DOT and USDT liquidity for a DOT and dotUSD pool.
• dotUSD would initially be minted against USDT before a second phase introduces DOT backed vaults, liquidations and redemptions.
• The full system would let users lock DOT to mint dotUSD while using on chain mechanisms to maintain its dollar peg.

According to OpenGov Referendum 1944, the proposed stablecoin would be owned by the protocol and operate autonomously through on-chain logic, without a centralized issuer. The proposal was drafted with contributions from builders, developers and other participants in the Polkadot ecosystem.

The proposal remains in the decision stage at the time of writing. Its implementation would create dotUSD as a new asset, recognize it as the Polkadot stablecoin and establish a DOT/dotUSD liquidity pool on Polkadot Asset Hub.

An archived Polkassembly snapshot showed 2.4 million DOT voting in favor and 59,900 DOT against, equivalent to 97.5% Aye and 2.5% Nay at that point in the vote. The archive cautioned that the figures were frozen while the referendum was still in progress and may not represent the eventual on-chain result.

Polkadot proposes phased launch for dotUSD

Under the plan, dotUSD would initially operate differently from the full DOT-backed system envisioned by its developers.

The first phase has already been built on-chain and would allow users to mint dotUSD one-for-one against USDT, subject to a supply cap. Since USDT would provide the reserve backing at this stage, the system would not require an oracle, collateral vaults or liquidation infrastructure.

The proposal seeks to use Polkadot Treasury assets to seed a DOT/dotUSD pool on the Hub decentralized exchange. The version submitted with the referendum allocated $2.5 million in USDT to mint dotUSD and another $2.5 million worth of DOT to the pool, giving it $5 million in initial liquidity.

A more recent version displayed on Subsquare lists $1.5 million in USDT and $1.5 million in DOT for the initial pool, reducing the proposed allocation to $3 million.

dotUSD would be designated a “sufficient asset,” allowing an account to hold the stablecoin without having to maintain a DOT balance. Governance would set parameters for the peg stability module, including the maximum amount of dotUSD that could initially be minted.

Phase two would move dotUSD toward its intended design by introducing DOT-backed collateral vaults, an oracle, a stability pool, liquidations and a redemption mechanism. The proposal describes dotUSD as an overcollateralized stablecoin whose architecture draws heavily from Liquity v2’s BOLD system.

Plans for a DOT-backed stablecoin have been under consideration for more than a year. As crypto.news previously reported in July 2025, Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood disclosed work on a fully decentralized stablecoin during the Web3 Summit and said a treasury proposal was being prepared to bootstrap its liquidity.

How would the DOT-backed dotUSD system work?

Once the second phase is implemented, users would deposit DOT into vaults and borrow dotUSD worth less than the collateral they provided.

The proposal gives an example of 300 DOT priced at $5 each, producing $1,500 in collateral. A user could mint up to $1,000 of dotUSD against the position, corresponding to a collateralization ratio of 150%. If the value of the DOT falls far enough to breach the required collateral ratio, the vault would become eligible for liquidation.

Borrowers would set the interest rates they pay on their own positions. Lower rates would place a vault earlier in the redemption queue, while borrowers willing to pay higher rates could reduce the chance that their collateral is selected for redemption.

Two arbitrage routes are intended to keep dotUSD close to $1. When the stablecoin trades above its peg, users could lock DOT, mint dotUSD and sell it at the higher market price, increasing supply. If dotUSD falls below $1, traders could buy it at a discount and redeem it through the protocol for $1 worth of DOT.

A capped stablecoin buffer is planned alongside the DOT redemption system. Existing stablecoins would back this portion of dotUSD and remain redeemable at $1, providing another route for maintaining the peg without selling the DOT used as collateral.

Liquidations would first be absorbed by a stability pool funded with dotUSD deposited by participants. In return for providing capital, stability pool participants would receive liquidated DOT at a discount while the corresponding dotUSD is burned to cancel the outstanding debt. If the pool runs out of funds, collateral and debt would be redistributed proportionally across the remaining vaults.

dotUSD ties into Polkadot’s new economic model

The stablecoin proposal comes after Polkadot changed the economics of DOT, including the introduction of a fixed maximum supply.

The DAO approved a 2.1 billion DOT cap in September 2025, replacing the network’s previous model of uncapped issuance. A subsequent tokenomics upgrade introduced the Dynamic Allocation Pool, or DAP, which receives newly issued DOT and other network income for allocation through governance.

When the new tokenomics framework entered its implementation phase in March, DOT emissions were set to fall 53.6%, while newly minted tokens, transaction fees and slashes were directed into the DAP. Governance can allocate those funds toward staking rewards, treasury spending and other network budgets.

Referendum 1944 proposes using dotUSD within the next stage of that system. Under phase two of the DAP, validators and nominators are expected to receive remuneration in stable assets, while the Treasury would receive a combination of stablecoins and DOT. The proposal says dotUSD would allow those obligations to be denominated in dollars and settled through an asset native to Polkadot.

Polkadot already supports externally issued dollar tokens. USDC became available on Polkadot Asset Hub in September 2023, allowing the stablecoin to move to parachains through the network’s cross-consensus messaging system.

The dotUSD proposal argues that relying on externally issued stablecoins leaves Polkadot applications and treasury operations dependent on outside issuers and their governance. Its proposed full version would instead use DOT as the primary collateral while remaining governed through Polkadot.

The Polkadot Community Foundation said its role is administrative and that it would not issue, control or take custody of dotUSD, DOT or USDT under the proposal. It would not operate the stablecoin or provide liquidity, with dotUSD intended to function through on-chain logic without an issuer.

Implementation of the referendum’s preimage depends on Polkadot system chains being upgraded to version 2.5 under a separate governance proposal, Referendum 1942.