Alternative Investing Report - January 22, 2026

*as of 1/21 Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

Major private credit firms are seeing increased redemption requests by investors, with more than $7 billion withdrawn from funds managed by the likes of Apollo, Ares, Blackstone, Blue Owl, BlackRock, and others in Q4. However, many firms are still successfully raising large funds, even as warning signs in the asset class continue to mount. Additionally, firms are now turning to retail investors, with that market expected to grow by as much as 30x by the end of the decade.

➨ TAKEAWAY: This could be the first sign that institutional investors are growing wary of private credit, as the market has become overcrowded and loan quality has declined over the past year. The bankruptcies of auto parts company First Brands and and auto lender Tricolor also gave investors reason for pause. As firms turn to retail investors to fill the gap, it is worth wondering why more sophisticated investors are starting to turn away from the asset class.

In this mini-episode of Smart Humans, Vincent co-founders Slava Rubin and Adam Katz analyze the current state of the real estate market, mortgage rates, and investment strategies, and provide insights into which markets to be bullish or bearish about in the coming year.

📉 Pending home sales fall: Despite a decline in mortgage rates, pending home sales fell 9.3% in December with a 3% decrease year-over-year, as the housing market is still waiting for an increase in activity.

🪙 Strategy buys $2 billion of BTC: Michael Saylor’s original digital asset treasury bought 22,000 Bitcoin, to add to its hoard of more than 700,000. The company’s average purchase price is just under $76,000, making that number ia mark to watch. If the price gets anywhere close to that, it could spell trouble for Strategy and the broader market.

🚀 Zipline fundraise: The drone delivery startup raised a $600 million funding round at a $7.6 billion valuation, nearly double its previous valuation of $4.2 billion from 2023.

💵 Dry powder rises: Private market funds hold more than $4.6 trillion of investable capital, a 4.6% gain year-over-year, with the vast majority of the growth going to private equity.

🏡 More sellers than buyers: There are now 47% more sellers than buyers in the housing market, the highest differential since at least 2013, when the statistic was first tracked. This imbalance is largely driven by buyers disappearing from the market due to affordability concerns.

👀 Eye appeal in collectibles: The way an item looks plays an enormous role in how valuable it is, with big variations even for sports cards, comic books, coins, and game-used items that carry the same grade.

AI has been dominating the discourse at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with major CEOs and world leaders talking about how the technology could shape the future, and the risks and upsides it presents. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang focused on the AI robotics industry and the amount of infrastructure that needs to be built worldwide to support the sector. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei criticized Nvidia and the American government for making a deal with China to allow AI chip sales in the country. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talked about the need for AI to justify its immense energy usage before the tides of public opinion turn against it. All of these commentaries reinforce the prominence AI now has on the global stage when the most powerful people in the world are spending their conference discussing it.