Acquisitions show what companies think they are missing. In September 2026 two buyers spent money on parts of tokenised finance they could not easily build themselves:
- S&P Global (reported by CoinDesk): agreed to buy OpenZeppelin, a smart-contract security firm, a few days after leading a $110 million extension of crypto data firm Kaiko’s Series B [1].
- MoonPay (reported by CoinDesk): agreed to buy North Capital, a private-markets platform with SEC-registered affiliates. The deal awaits regulatory approval [2].
Neither is investment advice, and neither deal had closed when CoinDesk reported it.
S&P Global and OpenZeppelin: rating the code
Reported by CoinDesk, citing S&P’s announcement. On 17 September S&P Global said it had agreed to buy OpenZeppelin [1]. The terms “were not disclosed.” The deal is subject to closing conditions, and S&P does not expect it to have a material effect on its financial results [1].
What S&P is buying [1]:
- A widely used code library. Many of the largest stablecoins and tokenised funds use OpenZeppelin’s open-source smart-contract library. S&P says contracts built with it have moved “more than $37 trillion” over time. CoinDesk notes that this measures value transferred through those contracts cumulatively, not assets OpenZeppelin manages or holds. The figure says how widely the code is used. It does not describe the size of the company.
- A security practice. S&P says OpenZeppelin has carried out more than 900 security engagements and found over 10,000 vulnerabilities before code reached production.
- Continuity. OpenZeppelin will keep its name and run as a separate unit. Co-founder and chief executive Demian Brener will continue to lead it.
S&P said the deal will strengthen “its ability to create the next generation of onchain security assessments, benchmarks, and deliver essential intelligence as capital markets transition onchain” [1].
Why it matters. A traditional rating looks at the issuer: its credit, reserves and governance. In tokenised finance, a fund or stablecoin can have sound reserves and still fail because of a flaw in its smart contracts. CoinDesk frames the deal as S&P extending its work “from rating the entity to rating the code it runs on” [1]. If banks and asset managers want a common, outside view of smart-contract risk before using onchain products at scale, a ratings firm that owns a major security practice is well placed to provide it. Whether the market will pay for that is still open.
S&P Global and Kaiko: the data layer
Reported by CoinDesk; Reuters also reported the round, but its page was not accessible to TSN. Three days earlier, on 14 September, S&P led a strategic investment that extended Kaiko’s Series B to $110 million. BNP Paribas, Nasdaq Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Royal Bank of Canada also took part [1]. Kaiko supplies crypto market data.
CoinDesk places both deals in a longer run of S&P digital-asset moves [1]:
- Stablecoin assessments: S&P publishes stablecoin stability assessments.
- DeFi rating: it issued what CoinDesk calls the first credit rating of a DeFi protocol, Sky.
- Indices: earlier in September S&P Dow Jones Indices and Kaiko launched a co-branded digital-asset index suite.
- Tokenised benchmark: in March the two tokenised the iBoxx U.S. Treasuries Index.
The pattern. Data (Kaiko), indices (S&P DJI), credit opinions (stablecoins, Sky) and now code security (OpenZeppelin) cover most of what an institution needs to assess before holding a tokenised asset. S&P has not described its strategy in those words. The four lines of business are simply the ones CoinDesk lists.
MoonPay and North Capital: buying registrations
Reported by CoinDesk. The deal awaits regulatory approval. On 23 September CoinDesk reported, citing an emailed announcement, that MoonPay will acquire North Capital, a Salt Lake City-based private-markets investment platform [2].
The key facts [2]:
- Structure: all-stock. North Capital will become a wholly owned subsidiary “after the transaction closes, subject to regulatory approval”.
- Value: “over $60 million,” according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to CoinDesk. MoonPay did not publish a figure.
- Scale: North Capital’s platform has around $9 billion in primary and secondary transaction volume.
- What it does: tokenisation infrastructure for private securities issuers and fund managers, covering capital raising, asset management, clearing, custody and secondary trading.
- Licences: North Capital’s affiliates hold broker-dealer, trading, transfer and investment-advisory registrations with the SEC.
MoonPay chief executive Ivan Soto-Wright said the purchase supports “building the regulatory foundation to support mass adoption of tokenized real-world assets” [2].
Why it matters. In the US, issuing, recording and trading tokenised securities generally runs through SEC-registered intermediaries such as broker-dealers and transfer agents. Buying a firm whose affiliates already hold those registrations is one way to get them, provided regulators approve the deal. CoinDesk notes that MoonPay has expanded beyond crypto payments in recent months. It launched a Trade platform connecting banks and fintechs to tokenised assets, and earlier bought DFlow and Sodot [2].
A related plan. Separately, on 17 September WisdomTree said it is building an access point on MoonPay’s technology for its WTGXX tokenised Treasury fund, and that MoonPay plans to use WTGXX in its stablecoin reserves [3]. That access point is planned, not live. TSN’s tokenised-funds explainer covers it.
What this does not prove
- The price of the OpenZeppelin deal. It was not disclosed [1].
- That OpenZeppelin holds $37 trillion. That is cumulative transfers through contracts using its library [1].
- That MoonPay’s deal will close, or its exact value. It needs regulatory approval, and “over $60 million” comes from CoinDesk’s unnamed sources [2].
- That WTGXX is available on MoonPay. It is planned [3].
- Any view on S&P Global or MoonPay as investments.
The Bottom Line
The month’s deals filled two gaps that issuance announcements tend to skip. S&P bought ways to assess code risk and market data [1]. MoonPay agreed to buy the US registrations it needs to handle tokenised securities, subject to approval [2]. Both point to the same conclusion: tokenised finance is increasingly about assessment, licensing and compliance, and less about simply putting assets on a blockchain.
Sources
- Olivier Acuna, “Ratings giant S&P Global acquires OpenZeppelin in tokenized finance risk push,” CoinDesk, 17 September 2026 (also covers S&P’s 14 September Kaiko investment). https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/17/ratings-giant-s-and-p-global-acquires-openzeppelin-in-tokenized-finance-risk-push. Reuters’ 14 September report on the Kaiko round returned an access error to TSN and was not used: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/crypto-data-firm-kaiko-secures-110-million-funding-round-led-by-sp-global-2026-09-14/
- Jamie Crawley, “MoonPay to acquire SEC-registered North Capital in $60 million all-stock deal,” CoinDesk, 23 September 2026. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/23/moonpay-to-acquire-sec-registered-north-capital-in-usd60-million-all-stock-deal
- WisdomTree, “WisdomTree and MoonPay Collaborate to Expand U.S. Access to Tokenized Funds and to Support Stablecoin Reserves” (press release), 17 September 2026. https://ir.wisdomtree.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/805/wisdomtree-and-moonpay-collaborate-to-expand-u-s-access-to
