DeFi protocol Goldfinch brings onchain exposure to private credit giants like Apollo with 'Prime' launch

Goldfinch, a decentralized finance protocol backed by heavyweights including a16z Crypto and Coinbase Ventures, has launched a new pool called "Prime" to give users onchain exposure to private credit fund giants.

Goldfinch Prime will provide non-U.S. people exposure to thousands of loans from private credit firms, including Apollo Global Management, Ares Management and Golub Capital, which collectively manage over $1 trillion in assets, Goldfinch said Tuesday.

Notably, the launch does not mean funds like Apollo will directly issue loans through Goldfinch .

"The loans are managed by funds like Apollo, and Goldfinch Prime investors have exposure to the loans through those funds," Goldfinch co-founder Blake West told The Block.

Goldfinch Prime offering

The Goldfinch Prime pool is structured as a continuous offering, allowing users to invest any time. Investors deposit the USDC stablecoin and receive GPRIME pool tokens, representing their proportional stake in the pool. The pool targets returns of 9% to 12%, net of fees, with no minimum investment.

With the Prime offering, Goldfinch aims to expand onchain access to private credit — a key segment in the growing real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market. According to RWA.xyz, private credit makes up over 60% of all tokenized RWA assets, with over $11 billion already onchain. Investment manager VanEck projects the tokenized RWA market will surpass $50 billion this year.

"By bringing exposure to some of the world's most trusted private credit managers onchain, along with strict compliance standards, we can increase the quality of private credit investing options available to investors globally," said Mike Sall, co-founder of Goldfinch.

Pool details

The Goldfinch Foundation has set up an entity that acts as the counterparty to investors, executing real-world transactions on behalf of the Prime pool, such as fund share purchases and redemptions, West said.

Additionally, the Goldfinch community has designated Heron Finance — a private credit robo-advisor — as the Prime pool manager. Heron Finance, also co-founded by West and Sall, is responsible for finding and vetting private credit fund managers to ensure they meet Goldfinch's criteria, West said.

However, Heron Finance does not handle loan underwriting or risk management. "The actual underwriting and risk management of loans are handled by the fund managers themselves," West said.

Fund managers such as Apollo will also fully handle all borrower defaults, according to West. That includes working with borrowers to bring impaired loans back into good standing and ensuring repayment, he said.

"Any losses with individual borrowers are baked into the yields that these funds provide, and the strong historical yields for these funds are net of losses," West added.

All private credit funds in the Goldfinch Prime pool must meet strict eligibility requirements, including at least $1 billion in assets under management, over 10 years of private credit experience, portfolios with over 90% senior secured loans and less than 5% payment-in-kind interest income, a target non-accrual loan rate below 1% and SEC registration with robust quarterly reporting, Goldfinch said.

Goldfinch's native token, GFI, currently has a market capitalization of $110.7 million and is trading at $1.20, down 7.5% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko . GFI remains far below its all-time high of $32.94, recorded three years ago.