Trad.Fi, a lender that provides financing to companies purchasing heavy equipment, has announced a partnership with W3, a developer of AI agents for enterprises. The two firms aim to deploy $650 million in private credit on the blockchain over the next four years.
The program targets the U.S. equipment distribution sector, which still relies heavily on paper-based processes. It focuses on manufacturing systems, industrial electrical infrastructure, and residential solar installations. By using artificial intelligence to evaluate risk, conduct due diligence, and price loans, Trad.Fi hopes to compress the typical monthslong financing timelines for small and mid-sized businesses down to a single day.
Challenging traditional lending timelines
“Small businesses lose deals waiting for financing, and the only way to fix that is to move the capital, the records and the workflow onto programmable rails,” Trad.Fi CEO Alexander Szul said in a statement. “This is what private credit looks like when it finally meets the speed of the real economy.”
The push comes as institutional capital undergoes a structural shift, interacting more with digital asset infrastructure. Tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) — which includes commodities, equities, and private credit — has grown into a $25 billion market. That figure has quadrupled from roughly $6.4 billion a year ago. Some analysts, including those at Security Token Market, project it could become a $30 trillion industry by 2030.
How the $650 million deployment works
The $650 million figure represents Trad.Fi’s targeted equipment-financing origination pipeline over the next four years. During an initial phase, institutional capital from established traditional private credit lenders will fund the bulk of the underlying equipment loans directly offchain. At the same time, the companies will work on developing the bridge technology needed to predict corporate stability and enable blockchain capital placement.
The long-term goal of the project is to create a fully programmable treasury. In this vision, 100% of senior and equity capital would flow natively through the Avalanche blockchain.
Tokenized liquidity pool in the works
A tokenized liquidity pool managed by an unidentified third-party operator is expected to launch in the coming weeks. The pool is designed to provide eligible investors with direct onchain access to the equity portions of the private credit generated by the program.
This partnership highlights a broader trend: traditional finance companies are exploring how blockchain can speed up lending processes and reduce paperwork. For now, the project remains a pilot, but if successful, it could serve as a template for other sectors looking to streamline credit markets.
