Polkadot Mints Its Own Dollar Bill — dotUSD Goes Live, DOT Holders Run the Mint 🏛️

Polkadot activated dotUSD on mainnet, marking the network's first native stablecoin and placing its governance directly in the hands of DOT holders through the OpenGov system. The asset has no private issuer, and core decisions are routed through Polkadot's on-chain referendum process. The launch comes as $DOT traded near $1.04, down 4.69% over the prior 24 hours.

dotUSD was approved under OpenGov Referendum 1944, which also greenlit a DOT-dotUSD liquidity pool and treasury funding to support early liquidity. The referendum passed with 98.4% support, with roughly 4.3 million DOT backing the proposal. The stablecoin operates on Polkadot Hub and mirrors the architecture of Liquity v2's BOLD design, though the initial rollout uses a simpler peg mechanism without price oracles or liquidation logic.

In its first phase, users can mint dotUSD on a one-for-one basis against USDT. A planned DOT-backed borrowing system is scheduled to follow in later stages, which would add collateralized minting once the protocol's second phase is enabled. Polkadot said the phased approach allows the network to test the peg mechanism before introducing more complex liquidation parameters.

The launch lands as stablecoin adoption accelerates across enterprise and payment channels. Circle and Tereina are integrating USDC and EURC into SAP payment workflows for eligible businesses, while Stellar's network was added to BVNK's payments platform, enabling USDC settlement for corporate clients. Unlike those issuer-issued models, dotUSD places protocol-level governance with $DOT holders via OpenGov.

By removing the corporate issuer from the equation and routing upgrades through on-chain referenda, Polkadot is positioning dotUSD as a governance-first stablecoin within its multi-chain ecosystem. The rollout's first phase will determine whether the community-driven model can maintain its peg as trading volume and liquidity provisions scale across the network.