S&P Goes Crypto
S&P Global is extending its benchmark and risk-assessment business into digital assets through a new Kaiko index suite, a strategic investment in the crypto-data company, and an agreement to acquire smart-contract security firm OpenZeppelin.
S&P Global has accelerated its expansion into digital assets throughout September, launching a joint digital-asset index suite with Kaiko, then investing in the crypto data company less than two weeks later. Three days after that, S&P announced another digital-asset deal, agreeing to acquire smart-contract security firm OpenZeppelin.
S&P Global, whose S&P Dow Jones Indices division maintains major U.S. stock-market benchmarks including the S&P 500, had already established a presence in digital assets before September. The company introduced its Stablecoin Stability Assessments in 2023 and in 2025 issued what it described as the first credit rating of a DeFi protocol, rating Sky Protocol.
Its relationship with Kaiko also predates the September announcements. In March 2026, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Kaiko announced the tokenization of the iBoxx U.S. Treasuries Index, making the index available onchain.
Kaiko is a financial-data company specializing in digital assets, providing market data, pricing, indices and infrastructure used by financial institutions and crypto companies. Its reference rates use trading data from vetted exchanges to establish standardized benchmark prices for cryptocurrencies, which can be used to value financial products, price derivatives and measure market performance.
The new S&P Kaiko suite combines both companies’ existing digital-asset benchmarks. S&P Dow Jones Indices launched its S&P Digital Market Indices in May 2021, including indices tracking Bitcoin and Ethereum. Kaiko had separately developed its own crypto reference rates and multi-asset indices.
Less than two weeks after launching the joint index suite, S&P Global further expanded the relationship by leading Kaiko’s Series B extension investment round.
In addition to the partnership with Kaiko, S&P took another step in expanding and securing its digital asset offering through its agreement to acquire smart-contract security firm OpenZeppelin. Founded in 2015, OpenZeppelin specializes in smart-contract security and maintains a widely used open-source library for building smart contracts. According to S&P, OpenZeppelin Contracts have underpinned more than $37 trillion in value transferred, while the company has completed more than 900 security engagements.
OpenZeppelin CEO Demian Brener said joining S&P Global would expand the reach of the company’s technology:
“With S&P Global, that foundation reaches a broader set of organizations entering this market, as well as the blockchain networks and DeFi protocols gaining institutional adoption.”
The deal is subject to closing conditions. OpenZeppelin will continue operating under its existing name as a separate business unit within S&P Global, with Brener remaining CEO and reporting to S&P Global Ratings President Yann Le Pallec.
Le Pallec described how OpenZeppelin fits into S&P’s broader digital-asset strategy:
“As digital assets and tokenized markets continue to mature, OpenZeppelin's technology and expertise will complement our smart contract and onchain technology risk assessment capabilities, giving traditional financial institutions and DeFi-native companies alike the confidence to build and transact in this new environment.”
Taken together, S&P’s recent moves suggest it is not building a separate crypto business so much as extending its existing financial infrastructure into digital-asset markets. Through these deals, it is pairing its existing strengths in benchmarks and risk assessment with crypto-native technology and infrastructure.
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