2025 was a year of refinement in credit markets. From the vantage point of Akin’s financial restructuring and capital solutions teams, liability management transactions continued to evolve, hybrid capital became a strategic liquidity tool, private credit stress proved selective rather than systemic, and courts applied greater scrutiny to process and value allocation—while leaving the core toolkit intact. As maturity walls approach and capital structures built in a zero-rate environment confront rate normalization and sector disruption, the defining theme is not contraction but institutionalization: sharper documentation, more disciplined creditor coordination, and increasingly sophisticated capital solutions now define the market.