If earning passive income is your way of maintaining control over your assets, Spark Fi is a perfect option for you. Spark Protocol is quickly becoming the driving force in stablecoin and liquidity management within the Decentralized Finance ecosystem.
This guide will explain “what is Spark protocol” and how it can enhance users’ yields and efficiency within the DeFi market through its innovative products and services.
What is Spark?
Spark is a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and borrowing platform created on the Ethereum blockchain within the MakerDAO ecosystem. The Spark protocol enables users to lend and borrow digital assets, such as DAI, ETH, USDC, and stETH, with a specific focus on DAI and its related products, including sDAI and USDS, via SparkLend.
Spark protocol was developed by Phoenix Labs for the Maker ecosystem and is modeled after Aave V3 to support collateral in the form of ETH and stETH. Additionally, the platform leverages key blockchain features, including complete transparency and decentralized governance, through the Spark token (SPK), as well as on-chain liquidity allocation across decentralized finance (DeFi), Centralized Finance (CeFi), and real-world assets. The Spark platform aims to optimize DeFi lending through capital allocation, offering transparent rates while also enhancing liquidity for DeFi users.
The following are the key features of the Spark protocol that you need to keep in mind:
- SparkLend: Spark Lending is the core component of the platform’s lending and borrowing system, enabling users to supply digital assets like ETH, DAI, or stETH and earn interest on them. Alternatively, users can borrow assets like USDS by using collateral.
- sDAI (Savings DAI): The protocol’s yield-bearing stablecoin represents a user’s deposit that automatically gains interest, and users can withdraw it in the form of USDC, DAI, or USDS.
- Spark Conduits: They are designed to facilitate liquidity flow from Sky to other DeFi platforms and can be tracked via the Spark Data Hub.
How Does Spark Fi Work?
The Spark Fi protocol enables users to deposit their assets, such as ETH or DAI, into SparkLend, offering the opportunity to earn interest. The platform pools the deposited assets and makes them available for borrowers. Users are allowed to borrow assets, such as USDS, as long as they provide collateral in the form of ETH or other acceptable assets. The applicable interest rates are designed to be dynamic, allowing lending and borrowing rates to fluctuate in response to supply and demand, thereby maximizing returns for investors.
Users who deposit DAI into SparkLend can earn interest in the form of sDAI, an asset that represents the user’s share of the protocol’s returns and interest-bearing DAI. Spark Protocol uses a specialized health factor to assess the collateralization ratio of borrowers. Collateral can be liquidated to cover debt if its health factor drops below a certain pre-determined threshold.
The Spark Protocol aims to act as a DeFi platform that connects borrowers and lenders of DAI and other supported digital assets by leveraging the MakerDAO ecosystem, creating an efficient and secure way for users to participate in decentralized finance.
Key Products of Spark
The Sky Team engineered Spark to become the fuel that runs the USDS ecosystem by promoting capital efficiency and composability using a specially designed DeFi infrastructure. The protocol has been designed to create a multi-layered value application scenario for the stablecoin USDS, utilizing three main components: the Yield-bearing Savings Protocol (Savings), SparkLend, and a Spark liquidity layer.
Saving
The platform’s users have access to a savings account where they can deposit stablecoins and receive USDS (sUSDS) tokens in exchange. The sUSDS is a token representing the user’s share of USDS in the internal Sky Savings Rate. The value of a holder’s sUSDS increases in tandem with a user’s savings growth. The Sky Savings Rate provides a yield that is higher than the regular DAI Savings Rate.
SparkLend
This is the Spark Protocol’s decentralized, non-custodial market protocol designed to provide liquidity for the Spark Borrow product. Interested users can join SparkLend either as borrowers or lenders. Lenders earn passive income by providing liquidity, while borrowers can access over-collateralized and perpetual crypto loans through DeFi.
Spark Liquidity Layer
The Spark Liquidity Layer (SLL) is an exceptional functionality designed to provide liquidity from Sky in the form of USDS, sUSDS, and USDC to other blockchain networks and DeFi protocols. Users who participate in this segment earn a Sky Savings Rate via sUSDS on their preferred network. Moreover, the function enables Spark to provide liquidity to the broader DeFi market for additional yield. The SLL is a cross-protocol and multi-chain function that facilitates the allocation of Spark-directed liquidity to all major lending markets. The SLL currently supports SparkLend, AAVE, and Morpho, among others.
What is SparkLend?
SparkLend is a non-custodial decentralized borrowing and lending segment working as a money market within the Spark Protocol – an integral part of the former MakerDAO ecosystem, now called the SKY ecosystem. The protocol enables users to borrow or lend assets, such as DAI, ETH, wstETH, and cbBTC, to earn yield or borrow digital assets with predictable, governance-defined interest rates. SparkLend is a renowned player within the stablecoin lending market, where it focuses explicitly on DAI and USDS. It also leverages Spark’s Liquidity Layer (SLL) to provide consistent liquidity to the broader DeFi market.
When it comes to managing attendant risks, SparkLend employs a combination of proactive monitoring, transparent processes, and easy-to-use tools. The core elements of the methods employed are straightforward asset monitoring, effortless rebalancing, and the use of sophisticated algorithms to detect errors as early as possible in order to mitigate risk. SparkLend has also implemented a risk management framework that integrates risk management into the platform’s policies, processes, and procedures.
Lending and Borrowing
By fueling Spark Lending, SparkLend enables users to participate in the borrowing and lending market without intermediaries, utilizing smart contracts to manage collateralization and transactions. The project is designed to focus on the stablecoin money market, with a strong emphasis on DAI and the token’s processor, USDS. Unlike other lending platforms where rates are unpredictable, SparkLend’s rates are determined by governance and remain relatively stable.
Efficiency Mode (E-Mode)
Capital efficiency is one of the key factors that distinguishes the DeFi lending space from the traditional lending market. To foster this, Spark created a unique eMode efficiency mode that promotes the platform’s utilization rate, bringing correlated asset portfolios to their theoretical limits. The Efficiency Mode streamlines the capital efficiency of correlated cryptocurrency pairs using an inbuilt risk parameter engine that automatically activates the “overlock module” whenever there is a substantial price correlation between a user’s collateral and borrowing assets, for example, ETH/wstETH.
Isolation Mode
SparkLend operates a risk management feature called Isolation Mode that’s designed to limit the impact of volatility related to crypto assets used as collateral for loans. The function restricts users from using different assets as collateral when a designated asset has been isolated. As a result, borrowing is limited to the isolated asset, which enables the protocol to mitigate potential losses associated with price fluctuation surrounding the isolated asset.
Siloed Borrowing
Anyone who is accustomed to traditional borrowing knows that a sharp drop in the value of a collateralized asset could trigger a global liquidation “domino effect.” Spark Protocol addresses this nagging issue by creating a risk-control module known as an asset isolation vault that creatively deals with this challenge. The strategy involves an Independent Risk Pool Architecture, where all collaterals are assigned dedicated lending pools, similar to traditional finance’s Special Purpose Vehicle. Additionally, a Cross-Pool Immunity Design is implemented, ensuring that when the ETH pool triggers large-scale liquidations, the USDC pool continues to operate optimally, thereby improving system stability by 300%.
USDS and Savings USDS (sUSDS)
USDS is a USD-pegged stablecoin native to Spark Fi, engineered to maintain a 1:1 value to the USD, giving USDS a distinctive connection to the Sky Saving Rate. When a user deposits USDS into the Sky savings account, it gets automatically converted to sUSDS (Savings USDS).
The user’s sUSDS automatically begins to earn yield via the Sky Savings Rate, which is derived from interest paid by borrowers across the Spark Protocol. Users have the option to reconvert their sUSDS back to USD at any time. With the Sky Savings Rate, users have access to a program that allows them to earn passive income without actively participating in the lending process. This can be especially appealing to users who enjoy earning rewards without getting involved in complex yield-generating strategies.
Benefits of Using Spark for DeFi Lending
Spark Protocol integrates different DeFi platforms to maximize the utility of DAI and offers features like Spark Lending, reward-bearing stablecoins as well as additional liquidity for DeFi platforms. By utilizing Spark Fi, the protocol aims to address global coordination issues and expand financial opportunities through an open-source financial system.
Through Spark Lending, the platform offers a high-yield, transparent lending and savings platform, focusing on stablecoins such as USDC, USDS, and DAI. Moreover, users can earn passive income by converting their USDS to sUSDS, which currently offers an APY of between 8 and 9% on Ethereum, Base, Gnosis, and other assets. The platform’s audits and over $ 6B in TVL make Spark stand out in both security and scalability. Main benefits of using Spark for DeFi lending include:
- Enhanced Security: Spark Fi is engineered with robust security measures, including state-of-the-art protocols that have been thoroughly tested through multiple audits to protect user funds.
- Capital Efficiency: Spark Fi has a state-of-the-art design that enhances users’ capital efficiency by utilizing their deposited assets as collateral for borrowing.
- Liquidity Layer Innovation: Spark Fi features a dedicated liquidity layer that integrates various components of the DeFi ecosystem, enabling seamless asset flow across multiple DeFi platforms.
- Governance: Users have a say in the trajectory the protocol will take, whether it involves collateral requirements or risk parameters, using the Sky Governance protocol.
About the SPK Token
SPK is the native token of the Spark Protocol designed to allow SPK staking. The token has been engineered with a long-term vision to make it sustainable within the decentralized ecosystem, where it can be used for various functionalities, including governance, platform security, and stability through staking, as well as serving as the platform’s reward asset for participants.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance launched its 23rd HODLer Airdrop, featuring the Spark token, as part of an initiative that began on June 10, 2025, and concluded on June 14, 2025. The plan is to list the token designed to enhance user rewards in addition to increasing the utility of Binance Coin (BNB) through a Spark airdrop. Currently, the Spark protocol is engaged in pre-mining activities that will enable users to get a Spark airdrop depending on the frequency of their usage.
SPK Tokenomics
The total supply of SPK tokens 10 billion, which is distributed as following:
Category Percentage Total amount of SPK (in millions)
Sky Farming (Users) 65% 6,500,000,000
Ecosystem 23% 2,300,000,000
Team 12% 1,200,000,000
How to Buy Spark (SPK)
Buy SPK on a Centralized Exchange
Buying a Spark token (SPK) from centralized exchanges (CEXs) remains the easiest and most popular way. The following is a step-by-step process:
Step 1: Select a Trusted Exchange
Select a trustworthy exchange that supports SPK such as Binance, MEXC, Gate.io. To decide which CEX to use, consider factors like payment methods, fees, security, and user experience, among others.
Step 2: Register and Secure Your Account
You will be required to enter some personal details to open and register an account on the exchange. If applicable, enable two-factor authentication (2FA).
Step 3: Complete KYC Verification
If you choose a regulated exchange, you may be required to complete the Know Your Customer (KYC) verification. The benefit of completing KYC verification is that you get access to additional features and higher transaction limits.
Step 4: Link a Payment Method
Depending on the applicable payment method, you may need to connect your Credit/Debit Card or bank transfer. Moreover, the exact details will depend on your bank’s or the exchange’s policies.
Step 5: Purchase Spark (SPK)
Review the details you have put on, such as the number of SPK tokens you want to buy, and once you confirm them to be correct, go ahead and click “Buy Now.” Alternatively, you can choose to swap the SPK tokens with any applicable trading pair via SPK spot trading.
Buy SPK on a Decentralized Exchange
- Find a Decentralized Exchange (DEX): Choose a reputable exchange that has already listed SPK. You only need to ensure that the platform is permitted to operate in your geographical area.
- Set Up Your DeFi Wallet: Connect a compatible Web3 wallet, such as MetaMask, or any other wallet that offers robust security.
- Fund Your Wallet: Deposit supported crypto assets, such as ETH, DAI, USDC, and others, into your wallet.
- Connect your DeFi Wallet to the DEX: Once your wallet has been funded, you can straightforwardly buy Spark (SPK), which will be automatically sent to your wallet.
Conclusion
Spark Finance represents a dynamic evolution of DeFi, introducing an innovative approach to managing lending and borrowing that marks a total disruption of the current DeFi paradigm. The transition towards a design that incorporates new parameters signals the potential ability of the Spark Protocol to create a new way of finance that addresses existing challenges and pushes the decentralized finance story closer to broad adoption. Whether you’re looking for a stablecoin to invest in yield farming or you want to leverage on a new token like SPK, Spark provides you with a modern approach to crypto investment.