Exclusive: Ant Group-backed R25 launches emerging-market consumer credit vault

Investing.com -- A blockchain protocol developed by Ant Group, the Chinese fintech giant behind Alipay and an affiliate of Alibaba Group, has powered the launch of the first institutional-grade onchain vault focused on emerging-market consumer lending, Investing.com has learned.

R25, which traces its origins to Ant Financial’s protocol development, is expected to announce today that it has gone live on the Pharos blockchain with the Axil Consumer Credit Vault, which raised $50 million in pre-deposits and hit its cap within 48 hours.

The vault has launched with $35 million in committed deposits and offers yields of up to 15% APY, sourced from the underlying consumer lending assets and protocol incentives.

The launch is timed to coincide with visible stress in traditional private credit. The $1.8 trillion private credit market is in the midst of a sharp contraction, with BDC sales down 40% and some evergreen funds gating redemptions.

The vault is expected to be positioned as a structural counterpoint to that market, offering exposure to hundreds of thousands of small-ticket retail loans with low correlation to corporate credit, denominated in USDC.

According to sources, the vault’s smart contracts have been audited by blockchain security firm SlowMist. Pharos, the underlying network, raised $44 million in a Series A focused on real-world asset tokenization.

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