US asset managers decline as investors await private credit fund updates

Shares of Apollo, Blackstone, KKR, and peers dropped over 5% as redemption requests in private credit funds hit record levels, raising questions about liquidity across risk assets including crypto.

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Add us on Google by Editorial Team Jun. 3, 2026

The biggest names in alternative asset management took a beating on June 3, with shares of Apollo Global Management, Ares Management, Blackstone, Blue Owl Capital, and KKR all falling more than 5% in premarket trading. Carlyle Group got off slightly easier, dropping 2.8%.

The catalyst: investors bracing for second-quarter redemption data from non-traded private credit funds, where the news has been getting progressively worse.

The redemption wave keeps building

Private credit funds promise investors periodic liquidity, typically capping quarterly withdrawals at around 5% of total shares. Cliffwater, which runs a flagship private credit fund valued at $31.3 billion, reported that redemption requests hit 17% of its shares in the second quarter of 2026. That’s up from 14% in the first quarter.

Some funds in the space saw redemption requests as high as 41% against that typical 5% quarterly cap. Industry-wide estimates put the shortfall somewhere between $4.6 billion and $5 billion in unmet redemption requests.

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Blue Owl Capital responded by freezing withdrawals on select funds entirely and selling $1.4 billion in loans to generate cash. Blackstone’s BCRED fund, one of the most prominent vehicles in the space, faced a record $3.8 billion in withdrawal requests during the second quarter.

How we got here

Private credit has ballooned into a market valued at roughly $2 trillion, fueled in large part by retail and high-net-worth investors chasing yields that traditional fixed income couldn’t deliver. Liquidity crises and valuation concerns that surfaced in late 2025 and early 2026 contributed to rising redemption pressures. Concerns about AI disruption in certain sectors have also played a role, adding another layer of uncertainty to the credit portfolios underlying these funds.

These funds hold illiquid loans that can’t be sold quickly without taking a haircut. When redemption requests exceed the quarterly gate, fund managers face an ugly choice: sell assets at a discount to meet withdrawals, or tell investors to wait. Most are choosing some combination of both.

What this means for crypto investors

The first pathway is risk sentiment. Investors who face locked-up capital in one part of their portfolio often sell what they can in other parts, and crypto markets are open 24/7.

The second pathway is more structural. Tokenized private credit products, sometimes called real-world asset offerings, have been emerging on blockchain platforms as an alternative to the traditional fund structures now under pressure.

The third consideration is DeFi lending. Private credit stress can influence the broader lending environment, tightening conditions and shifting risk premiums in ways that ripple through decentralized lending protocols.

For crypto investors specifically, the key metric to watch is whether the redemption wave stabilizes or accelerates. A $4.6 billion to $5 billion unmet redemption backlog is manageable for a $2 trillion market. But first-quarter requests of 14% became second-quarter requests of 17%, and if that trajectory continues into the third quarter, the conversation shifts from orderly stress to something considerably less orderly.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.