Key Takeaways
- • Cap founder and CEO Benjamin Sarquis Peillard, formerly of Citi and a contributor to scaling QiDAO (roughly $400M TVL), describes Cap as an onchain private-credit marketplace that offers stablecoin holders dollar yield tied to institutional lending.
- • Cap's model separates lenders, borrowers and independent underwriters, who escrow their own collateral behind loans they approve and earn a premium for first-loss risk.
- • Yield is described as originating from interest paid by institutional borrowers, with a portion of the credit spread flowing to depositors via the cUSD/stcUSD structure.
- • Peillard states Cap continued processing redemptions during the October 2025 liquidation cascade and the subsequent Stream Finance contagion without gating or breaking its peg, according to the interview.
- • Peillard argues blockchain improves collateral visibility and enforcement but cannot replace fundamental credit analysis of borrowers.
Summary
Cap is positioning itself at the intersection of stablecoins, private credit and AI infrastructure financing, according to an executive interview published by TechBullion. Founder and CEO Benjamin Sarquis Peillard, whose background includes time at Citi and helping scale QiDAO, said Cap evolved from an interest-bearing stablecoin in 2025 into a credit marketplace backed by financial guarantees, in which independent underwriters put their own capital behind the loans they approve.
In describing the mechanics, Peillard said depositors bring approved dollar-based assets into Cap and receive cUSD, which can be staked for stcUSD, the yield-bearing version. Institutional borrowers pay interest for dollar capital, and underwriters escrow collateral behind individual loans, earning a premium for taking first-loss credit risk. Peillard said a portion of that credit spread flows back to depositors as yield, and that the marketplace has included firms such as Susquehanna Crypto and Flow Traders as borrowers. Backers referenced in the interview include Franklin Templeton and Susquehanna.
On risk, Peillard said that blockchain can make collateral visible, prevent the same collateral from being pledged twice and enforce liquidation rules programmatically, but that it cannot assess whether a borrower can repay. He said Cap uses conservative loan-to-value parameters for crypto-collateralized positions and cited resilience during the October 10, 2025 and February 2026 market crashes. He also said the marketplace structure is designed so that one credit event does not automatically become platform-wide.
Peillard referenced regulatory context, saying the US GENIUS Act and Europe's MiCA framework could allow offchain businesses to borrow stablecoins from the marketplace, and that Cap currently finances sectors ranging from film production to financial services. The interview also outlines a roadmap for participants including surety firms and export credit agencies as underwriters, and credit rating agencies and audit firms as curators, though the timing of these additions was described as a two-year horizon.
In describing the mechanics, Peillard said depositors bring approved dollar-based assets into Cap and receive cUSD, which can be staked for stcUSD, the yield-bearing version. Institutional borrowers pay interest for dollar capital, and underwriters escrow collateral behind individual loans, earning a premium for taking first-loss credit risk. Peillard said a portion of that credit spread flows back to depositors as yield, and that the marketplace has included firms such as Susquehanna Crypto and Flow Traders as borrowers. Backers referenced in the interview include Franklin Templeton and Susquehanna.
On risk, Peillard said that blockchain can make collateral visible, prevent the same collateral from being pledged twice and enforce liquidation rules programmatically, but that it cannot assess whether a borrower can repay. He said Cap uses conservative loan-to-value parameters for crypto-collateralized positions and cited resilience during the October 10, 2025 and February 2026 market crashes. He also said the marketplace structure is designed so that one credit event does not automatically become platform-wide.
Peillard referenced regulatory context, saying the US GENIUS Act and Europe's MiCA framework could allow offchain businesses to borrow stablecoins from the marketplace, and that Cap currently finances sectors ranging from film production to financial services. The interview also outlines a roadmap for participants including surety firms and export credit agencies as underwriters, and credit rating agencies and audit firms as curators, though the timing of these additions was described as a two-year horizon.
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