category.private_credit.label
category.private_credit.promise
Audit
Infrastructure
Methodology
2026.04.0
published 2026-04-27
Providers tracked
720+
across 82 categories
Last verified
2026-08-07
editorial freshness
Editorial board
4
audit-log live
Decision guide
What matters most before choosing in this category
Weighted on published default and loss history (30), named underwriter and first-loss capital (25), the depositor's legal claim (25), and redemption terms and gating (20). The finding that shapes the category: not one of the seven publishes a per-loan default and loss history with amounts and dates. The highest score awarded on that 30%-weighted criterion was 4 out of 10, and it went to a protocol young enough not to have had a loss yet. Every advertised APY here is a number offered without the loss record that would let anyone judge it. Size is misleading too — Maple is 52.8% of the $4.46bn across these seven, and its own risk page says Maple is not a lender, with a collateral ratio of 147.33% read from its GraphQL API on 2026-08-07. Most of this category's headline size is a crypto-collateralised money market wearing the private-credit label.
Key question
Can you find what this protocol has lost, with amounts and dates, from the protocol itself?
Key question
Who underwrites the loans, and do they have first-loss capital at risk?
Key question
What is your legal claim, against whom — and can you actually withdraw today?
Current editor lead
Kasu Finance
Tranched USDC lending against Australian, US, UK and Canadian accounting-firm receivables originated by a named third-party credit originator.
Data checked Aug 2026
Tranched USDC lending against Australian, US, UK and Canadian accounting-firm receivables originated by a named third-party credit originator. Strongest on named underwriter and first-loss capital (8/10): Kasu names the underwriter and publishes its first-loss decision together with the reasoning: "It is noted that Kasu has undertaken Due Diligence on Apxium, and has not requested First Loss Capital." followed by "This decision was largely made on the basis of Apxium’s zero loss history after 8 years of lending." It… Weakest on published default and loss history (4/10): Kasu publishes a loss-handling procedure rather than a loss history, because the protocol is new. Losses are applied in a stated order beginning "First Loss Capital (if applicable)" then "Junior Tranche", and affected lenders "receive non-transferable ERC-1155 Unrealised Loss tokens" which "represent the Lender's… Published price: "It's important to note that 10% of interest earned by Lenders is deducted as fees, with half this amount allocated towards Protocol Fee Sharing for Lenders, and the remaining half to the Kasu protocol to fund operations." The same page adds the disclosure…
Best for
Named underwriter and first-loss capital — 8/10Depositor's legal claim — 6/10
Main tradeoff
In a liquidity squeeze the people who get their money out first are the people holding the most $KASU. The loyalty page states that Loyalty Level 3 is reached where locked rKASU "equals 5% or greater" of your combined USDC lending, and Level 3 confers "First order priority for Withdrawal Requests". A depositor holding no token is structurally behind token holders in the queue, and one who chose a fixed-rate strategy cannot join the queue at all. Note also that the APY shown in the app is gross: the docs state the quoted figure "refers to Gross APY (before fees)" and that 10% of interest earned is deducted, so a 10% gross quote is 9% net. DefiLlama put Kasu's TVL at $11,771,166 on 2026-08-07, so this is a small book concentrated on a single originator, Apxium, whose eight-year zero-loss record is self-reported and is the load-bearing fact in the entire proposition.
Verify before signup
"It's important to note that 10% of interest earned by Lenders is deducted as fees, with half this amount allocated towards Protocol Fee Sharing for Lenders, and the remaining half to the Kasu protocol to fund operations." The same page adds the disclosure that makes the headline number gross: "Therefore, the APY quoted on the Kasu dApp refers to Gross APY (before fees)." (fetched 2026-08-07). Kasu publishes no headline APY in its documentation; the rate is set per Lending Strategy and per Tranche inside the app, and the docs describe only the convention that APY "represents the total effective interest return over a year" (docs.kasu.finance/how-kasu-works/lending-strategies-explained.md). Corrected during verification: the previous draft opened that quote one word earlier, at the term APY itself, which is not a contiguous string on the page because APY is bolded and the bold tag closes before the verb; the quote has been trimmed to the text that actually runs contiguously.
Weighted criteria
Published default and loss history30%
Named underwriter and first-loss capital25%
Depositor's legal claim25%
Redemption terms and gating20%
Leading options
Shared shortlist for this category
These providers are pulled from the same category comparison catalog used in validation, so the category page, comparison page, and provider reviews stay aligned.
Kasu Finance
Tranched USDC lending against Australian, US, UK and Canadian accounting-firm receivables originated by a named third-party credit originator.
Editor lead
Tranched USDC lending against Australian, US, UK and Canadian accounting-firm receivables originated by a named third-party credit originator. Strongest on named underwriter and first-loss capital (8/10): Kasu names the underwriter and publishes its first-loss decision together with the reasoning: "It is noted that Kasu has undertaken Due Diligence on Apxium, and has not requested First Loss Capital." followed by "This decision was largely made on the basis of Apxium’s zero loss history after 8 years of lending." It… Weakest on published default and loss history (4/10): Kasu publishes a loss-handling procedure rather than a loss history, because the protocol is new. Losses are applied in a stated order beginning "First Loss Capital (if applicable)" then "Junior Tranche", and affected lenders "receive non-transferable ERC-1155 Unrealised Loss tokens" which "represent the Lender's… Published price: "It's important to note that 10% of interest earned by Lenders is deducted as fees, with half this amount allocated towards Protocol Fee Sharing for Lenders, and the remaining half to the Kasu protocol to fund operations." The same page adds the disclosure…
Best for: Named underwriter and first-loss capital — 8/10
Pareto
Cycle-based credit vaults lending stablecoins to named trading firms, prime brokers and one private-credit manager, with a per-vault curator.
Cycle-based credit vaults lending stablecoins to named trading firms, prime brokers and one private-credit manager, with a per-vault curator. Strongest on redemption terms and gating (8/10): Best-specified exit in the pool. A per-vault notice period is published in the live-vaults table (docs.pareto.credit/product/credit-vaults/live-vaults.md lists "Weekly, 7-day notice" for Fasanara Digital and "Monthly, 31-day notice" for RockawayX), and the redeem page gives the exact window as "the 6 to 24 hours… Weakest on published default and loss history (2/10): No realised default or loss is disclosed anywhere in Pareto's documentation. What is published is the loss-absorption cascade for the USP synthetic dollar: "Stability fund: 5% of the fees generated by USP are saved in a fund that should cover potential CVs' losses", followed by "Stakers' deposits: sUSP holders should… Published price: Pareto publishes no headline APY; economics are disclosed per vault in a table on its live-vaults page, whose rate row is labelled "IRM". The FalconX vault lists its curator as "M11 Credit", its vertical as "Prime brokerage", its IRM as "Fixed rate", its…
Best for: Redemption terms and gating — 8/10
Maple Finance
Pooled stablecoin lending to institutional borrowers, now predominantly against posted crypto collateral rather than off-chain credit.
Pooled stablecoin lending to institutional borrowers, now predominantly against posted crypto collateral rather than off-chain credit. Strongest on redemption terms and gating (7/10): Both the typical case and the worst case are published, which is rare in this pool: "Withdrawals are processed on a first-in, first-out basis as liquidity becomes available." and "Most withdrawals are processed in under 24 hours, but could take up to 30 days." A secondary market is offered as a documented alternative… Weakest on published default and loss history (3/10): Maple documents the machinery of loss in unusual depth. A default will "Reduce the pool’s value by the amount of outstanding principal on the loan and any interest accrued", and impairment exists so lenders cannot exit ahead of a known loss: "Impairment prevents a situation where a loan is known to be compromised (by… Published price: The page titled "Transparency | Maple Finance" shows, in its Products list, syrupUSDC with an AUM of "$2.55B" and an APY of "4.9%", and Maple Institutional with an AUM of "$787.89M" and an APY of "5.2%"; the site navigation simultaneously advertises "Maple…
Best for: Redemption terms and gating — 7/10
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Methodology
How this category is reviewed
Reviewed on published default and loss history, named underwriter and first-loss capital, depositor's legal claim, and redemption terms and gating.
Reviewed on: Published default and loss history, Named underwriter and first-loss capital, Depositor's legal claim, Redemption terms and gating.
This page is a maintained category surface, not a static marketing block. Review freshness, provider positioning, and recommendation logic should stay consistent with quiz and provider pages.
Frequently asked
Questions people ask before choosing private credit
REVIEWEDApr 2026METHOD4 criteriaCATEGORYprivate_credit
Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research
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