TL;DR
- S&P Global agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin, a blockchain security platform whose smart contracts facilitated over $37 trillion in transfers.
- OpenZeppelin, founded in 2015, completed more than 900 security assessments for protocols and institutions in the digital asset market.
- Financial terms were not disclosed. The contract library will remain available as open-source code on GitHub after the deal closes.
S&P Global announced an agreement to acquire OpenZeppelin, a company specialized in blockchain security, in a deal that will strengthen the financial data, ratings and benchmarks provider’s capabilities in the digital asset market. Financial terms were not disclosed and the transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions.
OpenZeppelin was founded in 2015 and develops open-source smart contract software, in addition to providing security assessments for blockchain projects and traditional financial institutions.
Moving Value with the Highest Security
Its smart contracts backed more than $37 trillion in transfer value, including the vast majority of the largest stablecoins and tokenized funds. The company also completed more than 900 security audits for the protocols and institutions that define the digital asset market.
“Our digital assets strategy is focused on bringing trusted data, benchmarks and transparent risk assessments to markets as they migrate onchain,” said Yann Le Pallec, president of S&P Global Ratings. Le Pallec emphasized that OpenZeppelin’s technology and expertise will complement the company’s onchain technology risk assessment capabilities.
Demian Brener, CEO of OpenZeppelin, will continue leading the business and will report directly to Le Pallec. The platform will operate as an independent business unit under its own name, and its contract library along with other open-source applications will remain freely available on GitHub.
S&P Global Consolidates its Presence in the Blockchain Industry
A few days ago S&P Global made a strategic investment in Kaiko, extending the Paris-based crypto data platform’s Series B round to reach $110 million. Both transactions are part of a deliberate strategy to position itself as a reference for data, risk and infrastructure in financial markets moving toward tokenization.
Jefferies LLC acted as financial advisor to S&P Global in this transaction, while FT Partners fulfilled that role for OpenZeppelin.
