On one hand, leading the investment in Kaiko, and on the other hand, planning to acquire OpenZeppelin: What is S&P laying out?

Written by: KarenZ, Foreisight News

In the liveliest years of Web3, the market chased new public chains, new trading platforms, and ever-increasing tokens. S&P Global, however, entered through a less noisy entrance: establishing coordinates for this 24/7 market, unifying scales, and marking risks.

From cryptocurrency asset indices, S&P 500-related on-chain products, to stablecoin assessments, DeFi protocol credit ratings, and leading investments in crypto market data service provider Kaiko, as well as planning to acquire smart contract security company OpenZeppelin, S&P is focused on a set of foundational questions: How should on-chain assets be priced? How do we compare risks? Can data be directly invoked by smart contracts? Is the code secure enough?

These efforts may not be as eye-catching as issuing tokens, but they could determine whether institutional funds dare to truly enter the on-chain market. Because while a market can operate 24 hours a day, without reliable benchmarks, clear risk assessments, and solid technological foundations, it just operates faster, and does not mean it operates more steadily.

First understand the market, then decide how to measure it?

The first step for S&P into the digital asset market was to compile indices.

In May 2021, S&P Dow Jones Indices launched the first batch of digital asset benchmarks, including the S&P Bitcoin Index, the S&P Ethereum Index, and the S&P Cryptocurrency Mega Cap Index, which covers both. The related indices utilize data provided by cryptocurrency software and data company Lukka and are managed by S&P's Index Committee. Two months later, its coverage expanded further to a broader cryptocurrency market.

This business itself is not complicated but is an important premise for the institutionalization of financial markets.

A year later, S&P began establishing a dedicated research and business organization for DeFi.

In May 2022, S&P Global Ratings established a DeFi strategy team, led by Chuck Mounts as Chief DeFi Officer. According to S&P's explanation, the team's task is to study how distributed ledgers, blockchains, and smart contracts could change the debt capital markets and extend traditional credit analysis capabilities to crypto-native clients.

This means S&P no longer views cryptocurrencies merely as a new asset with volatile prices but is beginning to explore whether they will form a new financial market structure.

In January 2023, S&P launched the S&P Cryptocurrency DeFi Index. This index filters digital assets from a broader digital asset index that meet market capitalization and liquidity requirements and can provide DeFi services or products to track the market performance of relevant tokens.

However, this index can only answer "How do DeFi token prices perform," and cannot directly assess whether a protocol is secure, whether liabilities can be repaid, or whether its stablecoin can maintain its peg.

Thus, at the end of December of the same year, S&P Global Ratings launched a stablecoin stability assessment framework, analyzing reserve asset quality, over-collateralization and liquidation mechanisms, governance, liquidity, redemption capabilities, technological dependencies, and historical performance, with results ranging from 1 (very strong) to 5 (weaker).

It is important to note that this assessment is not a credit rating. It measures a stablecoin's ability to maintain its pegged price and cannot be directly equated to the credit grade of the issuer, nor can it be understood as a guarantee of stablecoin value by S&P.

In 2025, S&P published its stability assessment of stablecoins on the Base chain through Chainlink's DataLink service. This means that DeFi protocols and smart contracts can directly read the assessment results without waiting for someone to copy data from a webpage.

From S&P's actions, it can be seen that what S&P initially did was not large-scale "on-chain" activities but establishing classification methods: what can be considered part of the digital asset market, what belongs to DeFi, and how to break down the risks of stablecoins.

Ratings begin to enter tokenized funds and DeFi protocols

2025 is a year when S&P's digital asset business clearly accelerates. One change is that the rating targets began to extend from traditional companies and bonds to tokenized funds that are issued on-chain and held off-chain.

From February to September 2025, S&P Global Ratings successively rated the Delta Wellington Ultra Short Treasury On-Chain Fund, Janus Henderson Anemoy Treasury Fund, and OpenEden Tokenized TBILL Fund.

S&P then expanded the scope of its ratings to the more native DeFi world.

In August 2025, S&P Global Ratings assigned a "B-" issuer credit rating to the decentralized lending protocol Sky Protocol, with a stable outlook. This was S&P's first credit rating given to a DeFi protocol.

What makes Sky distinctive is that it is not a bank with a traditional management structure and ordinary balance sheets; rather, it issues stablecoins like USDS and DAI through collateral, smart contracts, and governance mechanisms. In the rating, S&P examined the protocol’s liquidity, collateral assets, capital buffers, depositor concentration, governance structure, and cybersecurity risks, including the liabilities of the protocol to relevant token holders in its credit analysis.

The truly important aspect is not the "B-" result, but that S&P is beginning to answer a question that has rarely appeared in traditional rating systems: How should we evaluate the solvency of lending businesses when transactions are executed by code and governed by token voting?

S&P index on-chain is actually three entirely different things

In Web3 news, "on-chain" is often treated as a vague universal term. S&P’s practices over the past two years demonstrate that it includes at least three different models.

The first is fund share tokenization.

In 2025, S&P Dow Jones Indices collaborated with Centrifuge to authorize Centrifuge to use the S&P 500 to enter the fund tokenization space. Centrifuge collaborated with Anemoy and Janus Henderson to bring index-tracking funds on-chain. However, investors hold fund tokens, not "tokenized 500 companies," and certainly not directly holding the S&P 500 index itself. The index still defines the benchmark and rebalancing rules of the portfolio, while blockchain is responsible for the issuance, holding, and transfer of fund shares.

The second is on-chain derivatives.

In March 2026, S&P authorized Trade[XYZ] to launch perpetual contracts based on the S&P 500 on Hyperliquid. Eligible non-U.S. users can establish long or short positions around the clock, but this is a leveraged derivative exposure and does not represent holding underlying index constituents, nor can it be equated with ordinary index funds.

Its value lies in bringing institutional-level index data into the on-chain derivatives market. Its risks are equally clear: 24-hour trading eliminates market closure times but does not eliminate risks such as leverage, liquidity, oracles, and liquidation.

The third is more easily misinterpreted: the index data itself becomes an on-chain asset.

The article "S&P Global Invests in Kaiko, Wall Street Begins Paying for 'On-Chain Bloomberg'" mentions that in March 2026, S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) collaborated with Kaiko to bring the iBoxx U.S. Treasuries Index on-chain to the Canton Network, encapsulated in NFT form, with embedded distribution rights and permission settings, both parties referred to it as "the first major index provider to create mainstream financial benchmarks as on-chain native digital assets."

In other words, S&P is not "minting U.S. Treasuries as NFTs," but transforming the rights to access financial benchmarks into programmable objects. This may be more important than simply issuing a token, because smart contracts can only execute valuations, collateral adjustments, and fund rebalancing when they read trustworthy data.

This also explains why S&P continues to deepen its relationship with Kaiko. On September 1, 2026, the two parties integrated their respective digital asset indices into the S&P Kaiko Digital Asset Indices, covering more than 4,000 reference prices and indices; subsequently, S&P Global led a Series B follow-on investment in Kaiko.

From data to code, S&P is piecing together an "on-chain trust stack"

S&P's understanding of the "digital asset market" is no longer limited to tokens. In October 2025, its launched S&P Digital Markets 50 Index includes 15 cryptocurrencies and 35 publicly listed U.S. companies, covering trading platforms, financial services, blockchain applications, and infrastructure.

This design means S&P no longer simply equates Web3 with the "cryptocurrency market." In its framework, tokens, trading platforms, payment companies, data centers, and financial infrastructure together constitute the digital asset ecosystem.

In 2026, the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index launched by S&P in collaboration with Pantera Capital adds a layer of "fundamental" screening. This index does not rely primarily on short-term price momentum or market visibility but emphasizes actual use cases and revenue-generating capabilities, aiming to identify tokens and companies that truly create economic activity.

Protocol revenue cannot be simply equated with the profits of publicly listed companies. Different protocols' mechanisms for capturing token value, governance, and fee distribution vary greatly. But this index at least represents a direction: the evaluation of digital assets is beginning to shift from "what the market prefers" to "what the network actually creates."

Another change is that S&P’s data is no longer just for human reading.

In October 2025, S&P Global Ratings, through Chainlink's DataLink service, published the stablecoin stability assessments on-chain, initially deployed on Base. DeFi protocols, lending platforms, and institutional investors can now directly access assessment results in smart contracts or automated systems.

This transforms risk information into data that machines can invoke. Future lending protocols can set access or collateral parameters based on this, and asset management systems can use it as one input for risk control. However, the specific rules are still determined by the institutions or protocols using the data.

By September 2026, S&P and Kaiko consolidated their respective digital asset index businesses into S&P Kaiko Digital Asset Indices. This suite, upon launch, covers over 4,000 reference prices and indices, with Kaiko providing the data and computational infrastructure needed for a 24/7 market, while S&P is responsible for benchmark management, authorization, and global distribution. Subsequently, S&P Global made a strategic investment in Kaiko through its venture capital division, but the announcement did not disclose the specific investment amount.

Days later, S&P further supplemented its technical security capabilities.

On September 17, 2026, S&P Global announced it had signed an agreement to acquire OpenZeppelin, with the transaction amount undisclosed and still subject to closing conditions.

According to announcements from both parties, OpenZeppelin will continue to operate as an independent business, with CEO Demian Brener remaining in charge of the company and reporting to the President of S&P Global Ratings. Its open-source contract library will continue to be free, open-source, and publicly maintained on GitHub.

Data released by OpenZeppelin indicates that the cumulative value transferred through OpenZeppelin contracts exceeds $37 trillion; the company has completed over 900 security services and discovered more than 10,000 vulnerabilities before projects went live.

This transaction completes the roadmap for S&P.

The index answers "how the market is measured," credit ratings address whether liabilities can be repaid, stablecoin assessments answer whether pegging mechanisms are reliable, Kaiko provides the data infrastructure needed for 24/7 markets, and OpenZeppelin helps determine whether smart contracts can operate as designed.

This forms a gradually emerging "on-chain trust stack."

Of course, acquiring a security company does not equate to eliminating smart contract risks, and ratings do not represent commitments to preserve asset value. It remains to be seen how OpenZeppelin's security services will work alongside S&P's future on-chain technology risk assessments, whether the risk assessment methods can remain transparent, and how necessary boundaries will be maintained between commercial services and independent ratings.