S&P Global said on 26 October that it has completed the acquisition of OpenZeppelin, known for smart contract security audits and open-source code libraries widely used on Ethereum. OpenZeppelin will operate as a separate unit led by co-founder Demian Brener, who will report to S&P Global Ratings president Yann Le Pallec. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

What it means: One of the largest credit rating agencies buying a blockchain code audit firm shows where the market for tokenised assets is heading. When bonds, funds and stablecoins are issued as tokens, the risk is not only credit risk but also technical: a bug in a smart contract can lead to loss of funds. Placing OpenZeppelin inside the ratings division suggests S&P wants to bring code security into how it assesses the risk of these products. It remains to be seen how audit independence will be preserved when the same group rates products it may also have reviewed technically, a conflict-of-interest question supervisors will watch. OpenZeppelin’s open libraries underpin thousands of projects, and the community will look at whether they keep being developed in the open. For Greek companies building tokenisation solutions or issuing digital products, the message is that independent code audits are becoming a basic requirement for institutional clients and investors, much like a financial audit for annual accounts.

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