Polkadot Referendum 1954: dotUSD as preferred DAO stablecoin

Polkadot's on-chain governance vote on Referendum 1954 starts on October 13, 2026. The proposal would recognize dotUSD as the primary dotStable within the Polkadot DAO, and it involves DOT and USDT.

What is happening

The Polkadot Community Foundation (PCF) has submitted Referendum 1954 on the "Wish for Change" track. It recommends that dotUSD receive primary status among "dotStables", permissionless stable-value derivatives envisioned to be backed by DOT, and serve as the flagship asset of this class. The PCF also filed the earlier Referendum 1944.

dotUSD went live on Polkadot's mainnet on October 8, after more than 98% of voters approved it. It launched with a backing of 4.3 million DOT. In practice, however, dotUSD is minted one-for-one against Tether's USDT within set supply caps. The current version does not use DOT as collateral and runs without an oracle or liquidation mechanism.

A future version is planned to use DOT collateral, based on a model similar to Liquity v2's BOLD, but no launch date has been scheduled. The PCF has also described its role as purely administrative, saying it does not issue, operate or provide custody for dotUSD, DOT or USDT.

Why it matters

The vote is controversial because a Polkadot-focused stablecoin currently relies on USDT, while earlier critiques in the proposal pointed to the risks of centralized stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, notably the issuers' ability to freeze assets. Observers have noted this tension between the stated goal of DOT-backed stable value and the present USDT backing.

For the ecosystem, DAO-approved status would give dotUSD priority over rivals. Hydration's Hollar, built with Aave's technology, is classed as a third-party offering, and an earlier DOT-only stablecoin proposal, pUSD, was rejected with only 18.6% support. Holders and traders may want to follow how the vote turns out, how it shapes stablecoin liquidity on Polkadot, and whether a DOT-collateralized version of dotUSD gets a timeline. The related PCF mandate also proposes moving growth and marketing spending to on-chain, algorithmically capped rewards for verified individuals, which adds to the scrutiny of the foundation's treasury oversight.

Key details

• Date: October 13, 2026
• Project: Polkadot
• Coins: DOT, USDT
• Category: Governance Vote
• Status: Confirmed
• Source: https://www.bitget.com/amp/news/detail/12560605948123