American private credit giant Blue Owl Capital announces the sale of approximately $1.4 billion in loan assets

Deep Tide TechFlow News, February 22 — According to CoinDesk, the U.S. private credit giant Blue Owl Capital announced the sale of approximately $1.4 billion in loan assets to meet redemption demands from investors in its retail-oriented private credit fund. The fund (Blue Owl Capital Corp II) will return about 30% of its net asset value (NAV) to qualified investors, with the asset sale price at 99.7% of face value. As a result, Blue Owl’s stock (OWL) dropped nearly 15% this week, with a year-to-date decline of over 50%; other private equity firms such as Blackstone, Apollo Global, and Ares Management also saw significant declines.

Experts compare this to the “canary in the coal mine” signals before the 2007 financial crisis (such as the collapse of Bear Stearns hedge funds), warning that excessive expansion in the private credit market—especially AI-related investments—could trigger systemic risks, credit tightening, and banking contagion. If pressures intensify, forcing central banks to cut interest rates and inject liquidity, it could replicate the post-pandemic scenario of 2020, injecting momentum into Bitcoin and the crypto markets and fueling the next bull run.