Timeline
- 7.5
S&P Global to Acquire Smart-Contract Security Firm OpenZeppelin
On Sept. 17, S&P Global announced an agreement to acquire smart-contract security and development-tooling company OpenZeppelin, with financial terms undisclosed and the deal still subject to closing conditions. OpenZeppelin would keep its name, its leadership under CEO Demian Brener, and its open-source code, operating as a separate business unit reporting to Yann Le Pallec, president of S&P Global Ratings. OpenZeppelin Contracts is the most widely used smart-contract library in the industry, so a major financial-data and ratings group absorbing it marks one of the clearest examples yet of traditional finance buying into core crypto infrastructure rather than only trading or custody. It hands S&P direct exposure to the security layer beneath stablecoins and tokenized assets, at a time when S&P is broadening its digital-asset push after leading an investment in crypto-data provider Kaiko. OpenZeppelin says more than $37 trillion in value has been transferred through its Contracts software since 2015, and the current repository uses the permissive MIT License, with the company stating that released versions will remain open source permanently and cannot be withdrawn. The announcement makes continuity promises about audits, engineering work, ecosystem programs and open-source code, but its existing terms of service still permit changes to paid or hosted plans including pricing, features, quotas and usage limits, with protections and notice depending on the change type.
- 7.5
S&P Global to Acquire Smart Contract Security Firm OpenZeppelin
S&P Global announced on Thursday that it has agreed to acquire smart contract security firm OpenZeppelin, which was founded in 2015 and whose open-source code libraries have underpinned more than $37 trillion in value transferred through stablecoins, tokenized funds, and DeFi protocols. Financial terms were not disclosed, and S&P Global said the deal is not expected to materially affect its financial results. A traditional ratings and market-data giant absorbing a core piece of blockchain security infrastructure signals that onchain technical risk is being folded into mainstream financial due diligence, which matters for banks and asset managers now pushing tokenized products. It also gives S&P Global a direct role in setting security assessments and benchmarks for code that sits beneath tokenized financial products. OpenZeppelin will keep operating under its own name as a separate S&P Global business unit, with co-founder and CEO Demian Brener remaining in charge and reporting to S&P Global Ratings president Yann Le Pallec. The acquisition extends S&P Global's digital assets push, which already includes the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index and an earlier market-data investment in Kaiko.
- 7.5
S&P Global Leads Kaiko Series B to $110M for Tokenized Market Data
S&P Global led a strategic investment in Paris-based crypto market data provider Kaiko, extending its Series B round to $110 million, with additional participation from BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, Broadridge, Canton Foundation, Coinbase Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Nasdaq Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada, Stellar and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments. Kaiko said the capital will fund its core digital asset market data business and its expansion into onchain financial infrastructure, including data services for tokenized Treasury bills, money market funds, equities and bonds. The presence of S&P Global, BNP Paribas, Nasdaq Ventures, RBC and other traditional institutions marks a significant institutional endorsement of crypto market data infrastructure as a foundational layer for tokenized securities. The investors will also join a Kaiko-led industry working group on data and infrastructure for tokenized financial products, positioning the company at the intersection of traditional market data standards and onchain markets. Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran said the investors cover several key areas of digital asset markets—pricing, trading, capital allocation and blockchain development—and will serve as partners in building institutional onchain finance infrastructure. The raise follows a run of expansion moves: the acquisition of MiCA-regulated onchain infrastructure provider Cometh in May, US digital asset data provider Amberdata in June, and a February partnership with Bloomberg to bring licensed financial data onchain.