In this conversation, Benjamin Peillard, founder and CEO of CAP, breaks down the growing conversation around private credit and why transparency and incentives matter more than ever in modern finance. As private credit continues to dominate headlines amid recent market blowups, Peillard explains how CAP—backed by Franklin Templeton is building a new kind of credit marketplace designed to bring private credit opportunities to everyday investors in a safer and more transparent way. He argues that many of the problems in traditional finance stem from misaligned incentives, where fund managers make risky decisions without personally bearing the consequences when investments go wrong.
Peillard dives into the “principal-agent problem” in credit markets, explaining that investors often trust institutions to manage their money while having little visibility into how decisions are actually made. According to him, improving credit markets is not simply about finding better underwriters, but about creating better systems and mechanisms that align incentives between decision-makers and investors. CAP’s approach focuses on using blockchain-based infrastructure and automated rules to ensure transparency and accountability throughout the lending process.
He also discusses why tokenized private credit has not yet seen the explosive adoption many expected in the crypto and financial industries. Peillard believes many crypto-native investors remain skeptical of traditional private credit products because they often lack transparency around collateral quality and liquidity. While institutions are attempting to bring these products on-chain, he says investors still question the true safety of the underlying assets and the assumptions behind low-risk marketing narratives.
One of the standout moments of the interview comes when Peillard describes CAP as a “vending machine for credit.” He explains that every stage of the lending and investment process on the platform is governed by code rather than human discretion, minimizing trust requirements and reducing the possibility of fraud or manipulation. By automating decisions and limiting risk through transparent rules, CAP aims to create a more secure and efficient marketplace for private credit.