On September 17 local time, financial information and credit-ratings company S&P Global announced an agreement to acquire smart-contract security company OpenZeppelin. Founded in 2015, OpenZeppelin audits smart contracts and supports blockchain development, and it provides an open-source contract library reused by many projects. S&P Global said the acquisition would strengthen its ability to assess risks associated with smart contracts and blockchain technology.
According to the company, OpenZeppelin's library has supported more than $37 trillion in cumulative transfers and is used by most of the largest stablecoins and tokenized funds. OpenZeppelin has also completed more than 900 security audit engagements and identified more than 10,000 vulnerabilities before production. These are company-reported cumulative usage and work metrics, not the value of assets owned or managed by OpenZeppelin.
After the acquisition closes, OpenZeppelin is expected to operate as a separate business unit under its existing name. Co-founder and CEO Demian Brener will continue to lead the business and report to Yann Le Pallec, president of S&P Global Ratings. S&P Global had also announced on September 14 that it was leading an extension of digital-asset data company Kaiko's Series B funding round.
The transaction remains subject to closing conditions; ownership had not transferred at the time of the announcement. The parties did not disclose the purchase price or an expected closing date.