Private credit cracks at BlackRock and Blue Owl could hit crypto, DeFi

Cracks in the global private credit market are rattling investors and raising concerns that the strain could spill into crypto markets. BlackRock’s $26 billion private credit fund has begun limiting withdrawals amid rising redemption requests, following similar stress at Blue Owl, which sold $1.4 billion in loans last month to meet withdrawals and reportedly has exposure to a collapsed U.K.

property lender. Shares of major asset managers including BlackRock, Apollo Global Management, Ares Management and KKR slid 4%–6% Friday, extending their 2026 rout. Andreja Cobeljic, head of derivatives trading at Swiss crypto bank AMINA Bank, said redemption pressure that forces private credit funds to unwind positions could trigger broader deleveraging across asset classes that would ripple into digital assets including bitcoin (BTC $68,020.84).

U.S.

private credit, blackrock, blue owl, redemption requests, asset managers, apollo, ares, kkr, defi, bitcoin