Ashton Hettiarachi

Can’t trust WhatsApp

🚨 SOMETHING BIG JUST HAPPENED: BlackRock just blocked investors from pulling their own money out. The world’s largest asset manager is telling people: no, you can’t have your cash back. This has never happened before. BlackRock’s $26 billion private credit fund got hit with $1.2 billion in withdrawal requests this quarter. Investors wanted 9.3% of their money back. BlackRock said no. Capped it at 5%. Paid out $620 million and locked the rest. That means almost HALF the people who wanted out couldn’t get out. And it’s not just BlackRock. Blackstone’s similar fund saw a RECORD 7.9% in redemption requests. They had to raise their withdrawal cap and inject $400 million of their own money just to cover the demand. Blue Owl straight up stopped honoring redemptions. Replaced them with IOUs. BLK dropped 5%. KKR, Carlyle, Apollo, Ares, Blue Owl, and TPG all fell 5-6% with it. The entire private credit sector sold off in a single day. These funds lend money in illiquid loans. Loans that can’t be sold quickly. So when too many investors want out at the same time, the fund doesn’t have the cash to pay everyone. BlackRock also just wrote a separate $25 million loan down to ZERO. It was valued at full price three months ago. Gone overnight. JPMorgan’s Bill Eigen said it best: “Bad news often happens all at once. The opacity and the leverage in the sector is concerning.” This is a $1.8 TRILLION industry. – Rising oil. – War in the Middle East. – AI disrupting the software companies that borrowed heavily from these funds. – Rate cuts off the table. When the biggest funds in the world start telling investors you can’t have your money back… That’s a MAJOR warning.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Btw, I’ve been an investor for more than 20 years, and when I make a new move in the market, I’ll announce it here publicly. A lot of people will wish they followed me sooner.