Massive Crypto Acquisition: Why S&P Global Is Buying Blockchain Security Giant OpenZeppelin

S&P Global is acquiring OpenZeppelin to enhance its push into digital assets and onchain markets.

S&P Global (SPGI) has agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin, the smart contract security firm whose open-source code library sits behind more than $37 trillion in transferred value, and will run the auditor as a standalone business unit under its own name.

Founded in 2015, OpenZeppelin pairs security assessments and secure development services for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and traditional financial institutions with OpenZeppelin Contracts, a free library of standard token and contract implementations that the vast majority of the largest stablecoins and tokenized funds are built on.

The $37 trillion counts cumulative value moved through contracts built with that library, according to the announcement. OpenZeppelin has run more than 900 security engagements, including a late-2021 review that flagged a bug putting $15 billion in Convex Finance deposits at risk before it was patched.

“Our digital assets strategy centers on bringing trusted data, benchmarks and transparent risk assessment to markets as they move onchain,” said Yann Le Pallec, President of S&P Global Ratings.