Apollo Launches Tokenized Private Credit Fund with Securitize
Apollo Global Management, a prominent investment firm managing over $730 billion in assets, has unveiled an innovative tokenized private credit fund, collaborating with the security token expert Securitize. This initiative enables investors to access the Apollo Diversified Credit Securitize Fund (ACRED) feeder fund, marking a significant milestone as the first public on-chain offering for accredited investors from Apollo. Additionally, this venture represents Securitize’s inaugural integration with the Solana blockchain, along with the Ink layer-2 network developed by the Kraken crypto exchange. The tokenized fund will also be available on multiple launchpads, including Ethereum, Aptos, Avalanche, and Polygon.
The Apollo Diversified Credit Fund, which boasts more than $1.2 billion in managed assets, strategically invests in various areas such as corporate direct lending, asset-backed finance, and structured credit, among others. Notably, the fund has achieved an impressive 11.7% return in 2024, significantly outpacing the 4.5% return on U.S. Treasuries during the same period.
Christine Moy, a partner at Apollo overseeing digital assets, data, and AI strategy, highlighted the fund’s daily subscription and net asset value (NAV) structure as ideal for blockchain-based markets. “For investors looking to build a diversified portfolio on-chain, this fund offers a higher-yielding alternative to stablecoins, tokenized Treasuries, and money market funds,” Moy explained in an interview. “Moreover, it serves as a valuable diversifier against the more volatile yield products native to the crypto space, helping to create a well-rounded on-chain investment portfolio.”
There has been a surge in interest among traditional finance firms to tokenize so-called real-world assets (RWAs), with blockchain-based U.S. Treasuries emerging as the largest and most liquid market. According to Securitize, the global private credit assets under management have skyrocketed to approximately $2.1 trillion as of 2023, marking a fourfold increase compared to a decade ago. This growth underscores the rising significance of private credit tokens, which, while less common, introduce a new dimension for on-chain assets.
Securitize’s CEO, Carlos Domingo, remarked on the burgeoning landscape of private credit, stating, “This sector has been experiencing tremendous growth, and we are proud to be pioneers in the tokenization of this asset class, having previously launched a top-tier private credit fund token in collaboration with Hamilton Lane. In an environment where interest rates are expected to decline, private credit with higher yields is an excellent complement to Treasuries.”
Securitize has also established itself as the tokenization partner for BlackRock and serves as the digital transfer agent for the asset manager’s innovative BUIDL money market fund token. For Apollo, Securitize is leveraging its partnership with Wormhole, a developer platform that facilitates communication between different blockchain networks, to deliver a multichain approach right from the start.
Apollo has engaged in various tests of tokenized assets, including a proof of concept last year in collaboration with JPMorgan, conducted under the auspices of Project Guardian, an initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Moy, who has extensive experience in the Web3 space and previously worked on JPMorgan’s blockchain projects, expressed enthusiasm about future developments in decentralized finance (DeFi). “Tokenizing Apollo’s products is merely the beginning,” Moy asserted. “We are eager to partner with leading teams within the digital assets ecosystem to design modern treasury management solutions, automate investment portfolio rebalancing at scale, and develop smart contract-driven collateral management. In the future, we also aim to enable secondary liquidity for alternative assets.”
