March 2020: DAI traded above $1 during market stress
Observed: The deepest DAI premium in this dataset reached +12.9% on March 11 and remained part of a 52-hour rule-qualified event.
Context: During the same market-stress window, ETH fell sharply and Ethereum became congested. Glassnode's reconstruction of MakerDAO reports delayed price updates, liquidation stress, zero-bid auctions, and about $4.5 million of unbacked DAI. This is surrounding context, not proof of a single cause for the observed premium.
Sources: Glassnode: What Really Happened to MakerDAO
March 2023: USDC and DAI discounted together
Observed: USDC reached -9.8% in a 46-hour event on March 11; DAI reached -9.5% in a 44-hour event beginning the same day.
Context: California's financial regulator closed Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 and the FDIC was named receiver. Circle disclosed that $3.3 billion of USDC reserves had been held there. Federal Reserve research also documents DAI's one-for-one USDC conversion mechanism and describes the two assets as depegging in a strikingly similar pattern. These links explain why the dates merit comparison, but price data alone cannot isolate causality.
Sources: FDIC: Silicon Valley Bank closure · Circle: USDC reserve update · Federal Reserve: Stablecoin primary and secondary markets