S&P Global leads $110M Kaiko round as banks bet on crypto data

For financial institutions, reliable crypto market data has moved from a discretionary research tool to a risk-management necessity. S&P Global's decision to lead Kaiko's $110 million round—alongside BNP Paribas, Nasdaq, RBC, and Susquehanna—shows that banks and exchange operators are now building direct stakes in the infrastructure that prices digital assets. The question for market participants is whether this capital infusion accelerates convergence between traditional index data and tokenized asset pricing.

The announcement on Monday, September 14, 2026 that New York-based crypto data provider Kaiko has raised $110 million in a funding round led by S&P Global is a significant signal of institutional conviction in digital asset market infrastructure. Other participants—BNP Paribas, Nasdaq, Royal Bank of Canada, French state investor Bpifrance, and U.S. trading firm Susquehanna—form a cross-section of banking, exchange infrastructure, state-backed investment, and trading liquidity. Kaiko said it will use the funds to strengthen its data business and expand its product offering, which currently covers more than 150 different exchanges and crypto protocols.

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S&P Global's decision to lead Kaiko's $110 million round—alongside BNP Paribas, Nasdaq, RBC, and Susquehanna—shows that banks and exchange operators are now building direct stakes in the infrastructure that prices digital assets.

The investor syndicate is as important as the dollar amount. S&P Global, through S&P Dow Jones Indices CEO Cathy Clay's statement, framed the investment as a direct bet on accelerating digital assets. That a major index provider with deep ties to traditional benchmarks would lead the round suggests that crypto market data is no longer a niche service but increasingly part of core financial data infrastructure. BNP Paribas and Royal Bank of Canada bring commercial and investment banking perspectives, while Nasdaq adds exchange and listings infrastructure. Susquehanna's participation highlights trading and market-making demand for reliable crypto pricing and reference data. Bpifrance's involvement also signals continued French interest in a company that was founded in France in 2014 before relocating to New York.

The broader market context underscores why this round happened now. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have retreated from their late-2025 peak, and that price weakness might ordinarily cool institutional appetite. Instead, the sources describe a parallel and more structural trend: banks, exchange operators, and financial institutions are increasingly exploring tokenisation, the creation of crypto tokens that represent mainstream financial assets such as stocks and bonds. Multiple crypto exchanges have already begun selling products based on stocks, including perpetual futures, which has prompted regulatory warnings about investor risk. In that environment, Kaiko's role as a provider of institutional-grade crypto data—covering more than 150 exchanges and protocols—becomes more valuable for pricing, risk management, compliance, and index construction.

For Kaiko, the new capital should enable deeper product investment at a moment when data coverage, latency, and reliability are differentiating factors. The statement did not disclose a valuation or a split between primary and secondary shares, but the presence of strategic investors rather than a purely venture-capital syndicate suggests a commercial alignment that could include distribution partnerships, joint product development, or data licensing. The funding also positions Kaiko to expand beyond exchange data into tokenized asset reference data, a direction that aligns with S&P Global's index ambitions and with Nasdaq's infrastructure strategy.