The rise of on-chain private credit
Institutional investors are increasingly eyeing tokenized private credit as the next frontier in fixed-income. Even BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink has proclaimed that “every asset… can be tokenized” and that this innovation could “revolutionize investing”. Private credit – loans to businesses outside traditional bank lending – is at the forefront of this trend. As of early 2025, roughly $12.9 billion worth of private credit has been brought on-chain, making it the largest segment of the tokenized real-asset market (surpassing tokenized treasuries at ~$6.2B). Investors are drawn by the promise of efficiency and attractive yields: traditional private credit already yields ~8–12% to compensate for illiquidity, and newer tokenized deals are often targeting 14%+ annual returns. In a world of tightening spreads, double-digit yields from real-world loans have become a compelling opportunity.
Total tokenized real-world asset value (USD)
Debita is an on-chain private-credit platform engineered by market-finance experts, delivering alternative financing rails to businesses in emerging economies and aimed at bridging the financing gap for those excluded from capital markets.
US $80 million already placed, inaugural deals yielding 14–20 %, and a pipeline poisedto issue more than US $150 million over the next 12 months.Debita’s ecosystem includes commercial banks, investment banks, structuring agents and servicers in markets such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Colombia and Argentina. In addition to multilateral and development banks, international credit funds and family offices.
“Blockchain has reached the point where it can carry real-world assets with bank-grade controls. By digitising loans or bonds on-chain we settle cash and securities in seconds, 24/7, and even carve them into fractional interests that can trade compliantly. That opens markets once off-limits to a far broader pool of professional capital. We’re standing at the threshold of a US $2 trillion private-credit market that is about to gain liquidity, transparency and fresh funding. In short, this isn’t just back-office efficiency—it’s new yield and true diversification for investors.”
— Julio Ferrón, CEO at Neitec
The $5 trillion SME funding gap
Behind the excitement over yields lies a deeper issue: a systemic funding gap for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. These companies are the engines of job creation and GDP growth, yet they remain chronically underfinanced. According to the International Finance Corporation, the global **SME credit gap is about $5.7 trillion, and it swells to over $8 trillion if you include informal businesses. In emerging economies, local banks often consider SME loans too risky or costly to underwrite, citing lack of collateral, high due diligence costs, and limited credit data. This leaves millions of viable businesses without affordable credit. The result is a classic market failure.
On one side, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries struggle to obtain loans to expand factories, hire workers, or purchase inventory. On the other side, investors worldwide are chasing higher yields but face structural barriers that prevent them from channeling funds to these businesses. This persistent financing gap—between microcredit at one end and large-scale corporate finance at the other—has endured for decades. Bridging this financing gap isn’t just a development goal; it represents an enormous untapped market.
In this sense, our mission is to channel financing that helps businesses grow, strengthens local economies, boosts domestic value creation, and improves people’s lives, because that is what matters: doing our part to advance humanity’s progress.
Bridging the divide: Neitec and Debita
This is why Neitec team, uk- basedfintech founded by a team coming from Barclays, Santander or KPMG, among others, built Debita. Debita offers an integrated platform that unifies the origination, structuring, servicing and placement of private debt for mid-sized companies and fintechs in Latin America—markets where access to capital is scarce and local banks cannot meet demand. By bringing risk assessment, compliance controls, data-room management, servicing and syndication processes together in one environment, we tangibly streamline workflows that were previously scattered across multiple actors.
Thanks to this standardization, issuers can structure their deals efficiently and reach global investors at a lower operating cost.
Why stablecoins for B2B crossborder transactions?
The platform selectively incorporates on-chain rails, collapsing both time and cost in the payment and settlement of private debt. By moving the cash leg and the asset leg onto the same block, we eliminate the usual correspondent-bank waiting period and reduce fees for transfers and FX conversions, allowing transactions to settle in seconds rather than days.This speed not only cuts costs; it also translates into greater working-capital headroom for issuers, as funds freed from traditional banking procedures can be deployed immediately into inventory, payroll, or new projects—reinforcing the growth capacity of SMEs in emerging markets.
Extend credit without balance-sheet strain: how banks partner with Debita
Debita sources transactions through different channels: local structuring boutiques that originate and shepherd deals on the ground; commercial/investment banks that originate new loans and syndicate the risk through the platform instead of keeping it on their own balance sheet; and issuers that come directly to the platform.
Also, this approach allows them to offer new yield-bearing products to private-banking clients—fully managed via the platform—while maintaining visibility over each transaction. By distributing placements beyond local markets, Debita broadens the investor base, enhances risk diversification. Such capabilities are particularly valuable in jurisdictions with evolving financial infrastructures or stricter frameworks, where access to international funding and effective risk-sharing can be crucial to growth.
The result is an ecosystem that provides corporates and fintechs with a more reliable and transparent funding path, spurring productive investment in regions with limited access to capital. By connecting the supply and demand of credit in a single digital flow—including the participation of financial institutions seeking to syndicate or structure transactions—Debita lays the foundations for faster, more global access to capital with the potential for real, sustainable impact on local economies.
Why is this a great opportunity for institutional investors?
Global institutional investors access mid- to high-double-digit yield private credit deals—vetted by local partners and rating agencies—managed within a single platform that delivers real-time, transparent oversight and all the cost and settlement efficiencies of on-chain asset representation. In short, Debita turns fragmented, high-friction emerging-market lending into a single, transparent feed of diversified, high-yield private credit ready for institutional balance sheets.
Key Takeaways
Debita is effectively building the infrastructure for a more inclusive financial system. It takes the best of both worlds: the credibility and rigor of traditional finance, and the efficiency and openness of new technology. This alignment positions Debita. We are seeing large asset managers and banks increasingly experiment in this space, from tokenized funds to blockchain-settled bond issues. Their goal is not just to cut costs, but to expand their investment universe safely.
Imagine billions of dollars flowing from pension funds and sovereign investors in North America, Europe, and the Middle East directly to mid-sized businesses in emerging countries. That kind of capital mobilization could fuel a new era of growth in those economies .
In summary, Neitec’s Debita platform is closing the credit gap by unlocking high-yield private debt in markets that need it most. It demonstrates that tokenization is not just about improving efficiency in mature markets; it’s about innovating for inclusion, bringing new borrowers and lenders together in ways not previously possible.
Ready to explore on-chain private credit?
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This content is sponsored and does not serve as an endorsement by Blockworks. The veracity of this content has not been verified and should not serve as financial advice. We encourage readers to conduct their own research before making financial decisions.
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