Private credit minimums have collapsed from $250k-$1M to $25, driven not by risk changes but by smart contracts eliminating 200-350 basis points of intermediation friction. WisdomTree Prime and Metafyed exemplify this structural shift; the 8-14% yield spreads reveal why the window closes fast.
The private credit market spent two decades monetizing scarcity through distribution friction. Minimum tickets of $250k-$1M reflected custodian accounts, FX conversions, SWIFT routing, and bilateral legal work — 200-350 basis points annually — not underlying risk. Smart contracts collapsed those costs. WisdomTree Prime tokenized private credit with a $25 minimum on Ethereum and Stellar; Metafyed offers $100 access to Asia's institutional-grade credit. Tokenized private credit grew 82% year-over-year and yields 8-14% against public debt benchmarks under 5%. The spreads are finite. As infrastructure costs fall, those returns will compress, closing the window for capturing friction-priced yield.
