Private credit, the business of lending to companies outside the public bond market and the banking system, has grown into a market of more than $2 trillion that Moody’s expects to approach $4 trillion by 2030. A growing slice of it now lives onchain. Private credit makes up about 44% of the $51 billion market for tokenized real-world assets, which puts roughly $22 billion of loans on public blockchains, while onchain private credit grew about 180% in a year to early 2026.
Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest-growing credit markets feeding that demand. Lending to Saudi small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) reached SR468 billion, or about $124.6 billion, at the end of 2025, up 33% in a year, while Vision 2030 aims to lift SMEs’ share of total credit from 11.5% to 20%. Global institutions have had few direct routes into those loans, since most are made by local banks and lending platforms.
ZIG Finance launched the zEMS Vault on 11 November 2026 to open that route. The vault gives eligible institutional investors exposure to a diversified pool of Saudi SME private credit on BNB Chain, with subscriptions and redemptions in stablecoins. It is the first product from ZIG Finance’s strategic partnership with Laser Digital, the digital assets subsidiary of Japanese bank Nomura, which acts as risk framework advisor, while the zEMS onchain strategy targets a raise of $100 million.
Private Credit Moves Onchain
Private credit has been one of the fastest-growing asset classes since the 2008 financial crisis, as banks pulled back from riskier lending and specialist funds stepped in. Moody’s puts global assets under management at more than $2 trillion, with a forecast of close to $4 trillion by 2030, as insurers, pension funds and wealthy investors look for income above public bond yields.
Tokenization, the process of recording ownership of an asset as a digital token on a blockchain, is bringing that market to new investors. Private credit overtook US Treasury products in 2026 to become the largest category of tokenized real-world assets, at about 44% of the market against 30% for Treasuries, with the total market up 42% so far in 2026. Onchain private credit products have typically offered yields of about 8% to 12%, compared with 4% to 5% for tokenized Treasuries, which explains the appetite.
Saudi Arabia’s SME Credit Boom
Saudi lending to SMEs has grown at one of the fastest rates of any major credit market. Credit to micro, small and medium enterprises rose from SR307.4 billion in the second quarter of 2024 to SR351.7 billion by the end of that year, then to SR420.7 billion by mid-2025 and SR468 billion by the end of 2025. That is a 52% rise in 18 months (our arithmetic), while SMEs’ share of total credit climbed from about 9.6% to 11.5%.
The growth is driven by Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s economic plan, which aims to lift the SME share of credit to 20% and SMEs’ contribution to GDP to 35%. Banks provide about 95% of SME credit today, with financing companies providing the rest, which leaves wide room for non-bank lenders and outside investors as the target approaches. Reaching 20% from 11.5% means SME credit has to keep growing faster than total lending for years.
The Gulf’s Private Credit Opening
Private credit is becoming a major source of growth capital across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the six-country bloc that includes Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Private debt deployed in the region grew from about $0.5 billion in 2024 to $4.1 billion in 2025, overtaking venture capital at $3.3 billion, while Saudi Arabia accounted for about $3.9 billion of the total.
The demand is far larger than the supply. GCC SMEs face a credit gap of more than $250 billion, with SMEs receiving less than 10% of bank lending across the region, while global managers including King Street have announced plans to deploy billions in Saudi private credit. Industry estimates expect Gulf private credit to grow 15% to 30% a year over the next five years, as Fortune has noted in its coverage of the region.
How the zEMS Vault Works
The zEMS Vault is a tokenized investment product that pools Saudi SME loans into a single structure. A vault in this context is an onchain fund that accepts investor deposits and holds exposure to a strategy, which here is a diversified pool of Saudi SME private credit originated through Beehive’s lending infrastructure. Eligible institutional investors in eligible jurisdictions subscribe and redeem in stablecoins, the dollar-linked digital tokens used to move money on blockchains.
The vault is issued by a segregated portfolio of ZM Structured Products SPC Limited, a company in the British Virgin Islands whose segregated portfolios keep each product’s assets and liabilities separate. Merritt Administrators, which trades as ZIG Finance and is an authorized financial services provider regulated by South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority, acts as curator. Investors hold vault tokens and do not own the underlying loans directly.
Each partner covers one part of the chain. Beehive originates the loans, Zamanat structures the product and provides Sharia advisory so it can meet Islamic finance principles, Laser Digital supports the design of the risk governance framework and gives tokenization advice, while ZIG Markets handles issuance, curation and distribution on BNB Chain. KAIO, the tokenization platform built by Laser Digital and WebN, runs tokenization, compliance and lifecycle management, including know-your-customer (KYC) checks at subscription and redemption.
The structure is also expected to include Khalij as the Sharia certification partner, with an independent calculation agent to be appointed separately. A Sharia-aligned structure opens the vault to investors who follow Islamic finance rules, a pool that the Islamic Financial Services Board puts at about $4.4 trillion of industry assets in 2025.
Local Lending Meets Global Rails
Beehive brings the lending base. Founded in Dubai in 2014, it was the first peer-to-peer lending platform in the Middle East and North Africa to be regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. It has funded more than $1 billion for more than 2,100 SMEs across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Its Saudi entity is subject to regulatory approval, while its UAE and Oman businesses are regulated by the DFSA and Oman’s FSA.
KAIO brings the onchain rails. The platform has transacted more than $500 million in volume across more than 10 blockchains, with institutional funds from partners including BlackRock, Brevan Howard, Hamilton Lane, Laser Digital and Mubadala Capital live on it. Laser Digital, which Nomura set up to bridge traditional and crypto markets, is regulated by Dubai’s VARA and ADGM’s FSRA and registered with Japan’s FSA.
ZIG Finance ties the pieces together. Its ecosystem includes ZIGChain, a layer 1 blockchain built for institutional finance, ZIG Markets as its distribution layer and the ZIG token. Laser Digital became a strategic investor and risk partner in ZIGChain in August 2026, with the two companies setting a target of at least $100 million in total value locked across several onchain credit products.
Why BNB Chain
The vault launches on BNB Chain, one of the most active networks for tokenized assets. Real-world assets on the chain grew from about $3 billion in March 2026 to $5.2 billion in July, a 73% rise in four months (our arithmetic), making it the second-largest RWA network behind Ethereum with a 14.9% share.
BNB Chain also added $3.62 billion of tokenized asset value in 2026, more than any other network, as of September. Its low transaction costs and large stablecoin base suit a product where investors subscribe and redeem in stablecoins, while ZIG Markets uses it as the distribution venue that brings Saudi credit to a global onchain audience.
Making Credit Risk Transparent
The vault’s design is about managing credit risk in the open. ZIG Finance’s stated aim is to make the risk of lending to Saudi SMEs transparent and manageable, so institutional investors can get comfortable with an asset class they could not otherwise access at scale. Laser Digital’s role is to help design ZIG Finance’s own risk framework and the tokenization and issuance structure, with responsibility for credit selection and risk management resting with ZIG Finance and the originator.
The product carries the risks of any private credit investment. The vault does not guarantee returns, is not principal-protected and is not a deposit, while credit risk remains tied to the underlying SME borrowers. Laser Digital and Nomura do not guarantee, underwrite or rate the loans. The product is available only to eligible institutional investors in selected jurisdictions, excluding US persons and residents of Canada and Australia.
A Repeatable Model
The zEMS Vault is the first product milestone in ZIG Finance’s partnership with Laser Digital, which targets a minimum of $100 million in total value locked across multiple product rollouts. The companies describe the vault’s architecture as a template that can be applied to other emerging markets and credit strategies, combining local origination with institutional risk governance, compliant tokenization and broader distribution.
Further opportunities across the region and other asset classes are already under consideration. A $100 million raise would equal about 10% of the more than $1 billion Beehive has funded since 2014 and about 0.08% of Saudi SME credit outstanding (our arithmetic), which shows how much room the model has to grow if it works.
Outlook
Saudi SME credit is growing by tens of billions of riyals a year, Gulf private debt grew eightfold in 2025 and tokenized private credit has become the largest category of onchain real-world assets. The zEMS Vault sits where those three trends meet, giving global institutions a regulated, Sharia-aligned and stablecoin-settled route into a market that has mostly been funded by local banks.
The first test is the $100 million raise and how the loan pool performs through its first cycles. If the structure gains traction, ZIG Finance and Laser Digital plan to apply the same model to more GCC and emerging-market credit, turning a single vault into a pipeline that connects local lenders with global onchain capital.
This article is for information only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer of any product. The zEMS Vault is available only to eligible institutional investors in eligible jurisdictions, does not guarantee returns and carries the risk of loss of the entire investment.