Private credit is a $1.8 trillion market where companies borrow money directly from funds instead of banks. These loans have always been tough to trade. You cannot just sell them on a stock exchange like shares of Apple or Microsoft. They are custom deals between a lender and a borrower, and finding a buyer usually takes a lot of phone calls and negotiations.
That is starting to change. A platform called Tradable, which helps turn ownership in these loans into digital pieces that can be traded, has seen its activity explode. The reason is straightforward: fund managers are under pressure. More investors are asking to pull their money out. Alex Cordover, Tradable's CEO, put it this way: "Because of all the redemption pressures, you have seen more trading." He pointed out that "the democratization of private assets, evergreen structures and other structurally liquid vehicles that require quarterly liquidity has created new needs."
The jump in activity is not just on Tradable. Ed Goldstein, chief investment officer at Coller Credit Secondaries, said, "Secondary trading of private credit has roughly doubled each year for the past two years." He called the move "structural, not cyclical," as the market becomes a "natural release valve" for elevated outflows.
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Right now, some big-name software company loans are on the market. Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm, owns Anaplan and Coupa Software. In July 2026, Jefferies Financial Group was quoting prices for Anaplan loans at 91.5 to 96.5 cents on the dollar. Anaplan's original loan from 2022 was $2.5 billion and paid 6.5 percentage points above the benchmark interest rate.
Coupa loans were being marketed at roughly near par, meaning pretty close to their full value. That is a sign the market is not panicking.
If you invest in a private credit fund, the big question is whether the fund can handle people wanting out. The recent activity on Tradable shows that a secondary market is slowly building, which could make these investments more liquid - meaning easier to sell when you need cash.
Not every fund has that luxury. The funds that do need to sell loans will have to accept whatever price buyers offer. That could mean losses for investors who want out. But for investors who stay, the higher interest rates on these loans - like Anaplan's 6.5 percentage points over a benchmark - still look attractive.
The bottom line: private credit is becoming a little less "private" and a little more tradeable. That is good for flexibility, but the market is still early. Watch how discounts evolve. If deals keep happening near par, the system is handling the pressure just fine.
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