S&P Global’s path into digital assets did not start with token issuance or a trading venue. It started with benchmarks, classification and risk measurement.
Across crypto indices, on-chain stablecoin assessments, DeFi credit analysis, its index combination with Kaiko and its signed agreement to acquire OpenZeppelin, the company has been working around the same set of questions: how on-chain assets should be priced, how risk should be compared, whether data can be fed directly into smart contracts, and whether code can be trusted to behave as designed.
None of that is as flashy as launching a token. It can still shape whether institutional capital is willing to move deeper on-chain. A market can trade 24 hours a day, but without trusted benchmarks, usable risk signals and a reliable technical base, faster trading does not mean a more stable market.
S&P started with crypto benchmarks
S&P’s first step into digital assets was index construction.
In May 2021, S&P Dow Jones Indices launched its first digital-asset benchmarks: the S&P Bitcoin Index, the S&P Ethereum Index and the S&P Cryptocurrency MegaCap Index, which covers both assets. The indices used data from crypto software and data company Lukka and were managed by S&P’s index committee. Two months later, coverage expanded to a broader slice of the crypto market.
The business itself was straightforward. Its role was larger than that. Institutional markets need common definitions and a common measuring stick before products, comparisons and allocations can scale.
A year later, S&P began building a dedicated research and business structure around DeFi.
In May 2022, S&P Global Ratings formed a DeFi strategy team and named Chuck Mounts as chief DeFi officer. S&P said the group would study how distributed ledgers, blockchains and smart contracts could change debt capital markets, while extending traditional credit analysis to crypto-native clients.
That marked a shift in framing. S&P was no longer looking at crypto only as a volatile new asset class. It was also asking whether crypto could develop into a distinct market structure.
In January 2023, S&P launched the S&P Cryptocurrency DeFi Index. The index selects digital assets from a broader crypto universe that meet market capitalization and liquidity requirements and provide DeFi services or products, allowing investors to track the market performance of those tokens.
Even so, an index of token performance can only answer one question well: how DeFi tokens have traded. It cannot directly answer whether a protocol is secure, whether liabilities can be repaid, or whether a stablecoin can hold its peg.
At the end of December 2023, S&P Global Ratings introduced a stablecoin stability assessment framework. It reviews reserve asset quality, overcollateralization and liquidation mechanisms, governance, liquidity, redemption capacity, technological dependencies and historical performance. Results range from 1, meaning very strong, to 5, meaning weak.
S&P also made clear that this was not a credit rating. It measures a stablecoin’s ability to maintain its pegged price. It is not the same as an issuer credit rating, and it should not be read as a guarantee of value by S&P.
In 2025, S&P then published those stablecoin stability assessments on Base through Chainlink’s DataLink service. That gave DeFi protocols and smart contracts a way to pull the assessment data directly, instead of waiting for a human to retrieve it from a webpage.
Viewed together, these steps show that S&P’s early work was not broad “on-chain migration” in a general sense. It was the construction of a framework: what belongs in the digital-asset market, what qualifies as DeFi, and how stablecoin risk should be broken down.
Ratings moved into tokenized funds and DeFi protocols
By 2025, S&P’s digital-asset effort had clearly accelerated.
One major change was the expansion of ratings coverage from traditional companies and bonds into tokenized funds issued on-chain while holding assets off-chain. From February through September 2025, S&P Global Ratings assigned ratings to Delta Wellington Ultra Short Treasury On-Chain Fund, Janus Henderson Anemoy Treasury Fund and OpenEden Tokenized TBILL Fund.
It then pushed further into natively on-chain credit analysis.
In August 2025, S&P Global Ratings assigned decentralized lending protocol Sky Protocol a "B-" issuer credit rating with a stable outlook. It was S&P’s first credit rating for a DeFi protocol.
Sky differs from a traditional bank with a management hierarchy and a conventional balance sheet. It issues stablecoins including USDS and DAI through collateral, smart contracts and governance mechanisms. In its rating analysis, S&P examined the protocol’s liquidity, collateral assets, capital buffers, depositor concentration, governance structure and cybersecurity risk, while also treating liabilities to relevant token holders as part of the credit analysis.
The key development was not just the "B-" itself. S&P had started addressing a question that rarely appears in a conventional ratings framework: how to evaluate repayment capacity when lending activity is executed by code and governed through token voting.
Three different meanings of “on-chain” in S&P’s recent work
In Web3 coverage, “on-chain” often gets used as a catch-all term. S&P’s recent activity suggests the label actually covers at least three distinct models.
Tokenized fund shares
The first is fund-share tokenization.
In 2025, S&P Dow Jones Indices partnered with Centrifuge and authorized Centrifuge to use the S&P 500 in tokenized funds. Centrifuge then worked with Anemoy and Janus Henderson to bring funds tracking that index on-chain.
What investors hold in that structure are fund tokens, not “tokenized versions” of 500 operating companies, and not direct ownership of the S&P 500 index itself. The index still defines the benchmark and rebalancing rules. Blockchain infrastructure handles issuance, ownership and transfer of fund shares.
On-chain derivatives
The second model is on-chain derivatives.
In March 2026, S&P licensed Trade[XYZ] to launch S&P 500-based perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid. Eligible non-U.S. users could take long or short positions around the clock. That product creates leveraged derivatives exposure. It does not represent ownership of index constituents, and it is not the same as a standard index fund.
Its significance lies in bringing institutional-grade index data into on-chain derivatives. The risk profile remains obvious. Twenty-four-hour trading removes the market close, not leverage risk, liquidity risk, oracle risk or liquidation risk.
Index data as an on-chain asset
The third model is easier to misunderstand: the index data itself becomes the on-chain asset.
As cited in the article "S&P Global takes a stake in Kaiko as Wall Street pays for an on-chain Bloomberg," S&P Dow Jones Indices and Kaiko put the iBoxx U.S. Treasuries Index on Canton Network in March 2026. It was wrapped as an NFT with embedded distribution rights and licensing permissions. The two companies described it as the first time a major index provider turned a mainstream financial benchmark into a native on-chain digital asset.
That does not mean U.S. Treasuries were minted into an NFT. What became programmable was the right to access the benchmark. For on-chain finance, that may matter more than issuing a token on its own, because smart contracts need trusted data in order to carry out valuation, collateral adjustments and fund rebalancing.
Kaiko became part of the data layer
That helps explain why S&P kept deepening its relationship with Kaiko.
On Sept. 1, 2026, the two companies combined their respective digital-asset index operations into S&P Kaiko Digital Asset Indices, launching with more than 4,000 reference prices and indices. S&P Global later led Kaiko’s Series B extension round.
In September 2026, the combined index suite was described as relying on Kaiko for data and computational infrastructure built for always-on markets, while S&P handled benchmark governance, licensing and global distribution. After that, S&P Global also made a strategic investment in Kaiko through its venture arm, though the announcement did not disclose the amount.
The result is a clearer picture of S&P’s role in digital assets. It is not only lending its brand to index products. It is also reinforcing the market data layer needed for 24/7 trading environments.
S&P’s digital-assets view now extends beyond tokens
S&P’s definition of the digital-asset market has widened as well.
In October 2025, it launched the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index, which includes 15 crypto assets and 35 U.S.-listed companies. Those public companies span trading platforms, financial services, blockchain applications and infrastructure.
The design shows that S&P no longer treats Web3 as a simple synonym for the crypto token market. In its framework, tokens, exchanges, payment firms, data centers and financial infrastructure all sit within one digital-assets ecosystem.
In 2026, S&P and Pantera Capital added another layer with the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index. Rather than focusing mainly on short-term price momentum or market visibility, the index emphasizes real-world use and revenue generation, with the aim of identifying tokens and companies producing actual economic activity.
Protocol revenue is not directly comparable to the profit of a listed company. Token value capture, governance and fee distribution differ widely across protocols. Even so, the index points to a specific shift in approach: digital-asset analysis is starting to move from what the market likes most to what networks are actually producing.
Risk information is being turned into machine-readable input
Another change is that S&P’s data is no longer only being published for people to read.
In October 2025, S&P Global Ratings used Chainlink DataLink to publish stablecoin stability assessments on-chain, first on Base. That gave DeFi protocols, lending platforms and institutional investors direct access inside smart contracts and automated systems.
In practical terms, risk information was turned into machine-readable data. A lending protocol could use that input to set access standards or collateral parameters, and an asset-management system could treat it as one factor in risk control. The rules themselves would still be set by the institution or protocol using the data.
OpenZeppelin would add the security layer
Days later, S&P moved to add a technical security capability.
On Sept. 17, 2026, S&P Global said it had signed an agreement to acquire OpenZeppelin. The transaction value was not disclosed, and completion remains subject to closing conditions.
According to the companies’ announcements, OpenZeppelin will continue to operate as an independent business. CEO Demian Brener will remain in charge and will report to the president of S&P Global Ratings. Its open-source contract library will remain free, open-source and publicly maintained on GitHub.
OpenZeppelin said contracts supported through its tooling have enabled more than $37 trillion in cumulative value transfer. The company also said it has completed more than 900 security engagements and found more than 10,000 vulnerabilities before projects went live.
That proposed acquisition makes S&P’s route through Web3 easier to read as a whole. Indices answer how a market is measured. Credit ratings address whether liabilities can be repaid. Stablecoin assessments examine whether peg mechanisms are reliable. Kaiko provides data infrastructure for round-the-clock markets. OpenZeppelin adds a way to evaluate whether smart contracts are likely to function as intended.
Together, those pieces form what looks increasingly like an on-chain trust stack.
That still leaves open questions. Buying a security company does not remove smart-contract risk, and a rating is not a principal guarantee. It remains to be seen how OpenZeppelin’s security services and S&P’s future technical risk assessments on-chain will divide responsibilities, whether risk methods can remain transparent, and how commercial services and independent ratings will keep a necessary boundary between them.
