S&P Global leads Kaiko Series B extension to 110 million USD
S&P Global has led a strategic investment in Kaiko, extending the Paris-based crypto market data provider’s Series B round to 110 million USD as Wall Street’s biggest infrastructure firms position themselves for tokenized financial markets. The round reads like a who’s-who of institutional finance: BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, Broadridge, Canton Foundation, Coinbase Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Nasdaq Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada, Stellar, and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments all participated.
Kaiko said the funding will support its core digital asset market data business and its push into onchain financial infrastructure, including data services for tokenized Treasury bills, money market funds, equities, and bonds. The participating investors will also join a Kaiko-led industry working group focused on developing data and infrastructure standards for tokenized financial products, a signal that the strategic value of the round lies in alignment, not just capital.
Why data is the bottleneck for tokenization
CEO Ambre Soubrian said the investors span pricing, trading, capital allocation, and blockchain development, and would serve as partners in building institutional-grade infrastructure for onchain finance. The logic is straightforward: tokenized assets still need reference data, valuations, and auditable price feeds, and the firms that control that data layer control the plumbing of whatever market emerges. A rating agency like S&P Global leading a crypto data round would have been unthinkable in 2022; in 2026 it is a hedge.
The funding follows a busy year of consolidation at Kaiko. The company acquired MiCA-regulated onchain infrastructure provider Cometh in May and US digital asset data provider Amberdata in June, after partnering with Bloomberg in February to bring licensed financial data onchain. Kaiko has also been a watchdog for market integrity, flagging possible front-running ahead of Robinhood token listings in a widely cited research note.
Wall Street’s tokenization stack is assembling fast
The round lands amid a rapid institutional buildout. In March, New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange signed an agreement with Securitize to develop infrastructure and standards for tokenized securities, building on ICE’s January plan for a tokenized securities trading platform supporting 24/7 trading and instant settlement. That same month, Nasdaq received SEC approval to pilot trading of tokenized stocks and ETFs alongside traditional securities, and separately partnered with Kraken parent Payward, which itself raised 100 million USD from Nasdaq at a 21 billion USD valuation, to connect regulated equity markets with onchain tokenized equities.
In July, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation conducted production trades using DTC-tokenized assets with more than 30 financial firms ahead of a planned October launch of its tokenization service. DTC, the DTCC subsidiary involved, provides custody and asset servicing for 114 trillion USD in securities, meaning the back office of the American market is quietly rehearsing a blockchain future.
US regulators are leaning in rather than away. The SEC has scheduled a roundtable for September 17 on preparations for 24-hour trading in US equities, covering market readiness, operational resilience, investor protections, and potential expansion toward round-the-clock sessions, one of three such panels on the calendar.
The quiet winner of the tokenization race
The pattern across these deals is that exchanges, banks, and market makers are not betting on which token wins; they are buying the picks and shovels. Data providers, custody rails, and settlement infrastructure collect fees regardless of which asset class tokenizes first. Kaiko’s extended round, with a rating agency, two bank treasuries, two exchange venture arms, and a major trading firm at the table, is the clearest evidence yet that institutional tokenization is treated inside the legacy system as a when, not an if.
What to watch next
The immediate catalysts are the SEC’s September 17 roundtable and DTCC’s October launch window. If either slips, the tokenization trade’s momentum could cool. But with an S&P-led cap table, two fresh acquisitions integrated, and a Bloomberg partnership live, Kaiko enters the fourth quarter with more institutional distribution than any standalone crypto data firm in history. The 110 million USD question is whether the working group it now chairs produces standards the rest of the market adopts, or fragments into competing bank-led consortia.
Risks remain: fragmented global regulation, the unresolved question of whether tokenized equities must hold real securities, and competition from Bloomberg, CoinGecko-adjacent upstarts, and exchange in-house data arms. But with 110 million USD in fresh capital and an investor working group spanning the tradFi stack, Kaiko has bought itself a seat at the standards table that will define how onchain markets get priced.
S&P leading a 110M round for market data is the most wall street thing ever. they see where the institutional money needs clean numbers
S&P Global, Nasdaq Ventures, BNP Paribas and Susquehanna all in one cap table. market data for tokenized assets is becoming real infrastructure
wall street always finds the boring picks and shovels first. data feeds for tokenized tbills will print
drw and susquehanna showing up is the tell. market makers need clean tokenized price feeds before anyone else even touches them
Kaiko has been grinding since like 2014 while everyone chased exchange tokens. boring data business wins again
since 2014 is right. they kept selling data through every winter while half the industry pivoted to NFT floor price feeds. this cap table is the payoff
Paris-based company pulling 110 million with that investor lineup. europe quietly winning this niche
paris, bnpp and bpifrance all in one round. the eu built an actual regulatory box and companies moved in, credit where due
a standards working group sounds boring until you realize whoever writes the standard owns the pipe. kaiko picked the right fight