Alternative Investing Report - November 19, 2025

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*as of 11/18; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

On Monday, the New York fall art auction week kicked off at Christie’s, with a major two-part sale that brought in $690 million, well within the forecast range of $540 million - $760 million. Of 80 lots, 76 ended up selling, with about one-third selling for above their high estimates. The top sale was for a Mark Rothko painting that carried a $50 million pre-sale estimate and sold for $62.2 million. That result was followed by a banner night at Sotheby’s yesterday, highlighted by the $236 million sale of Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” a new record for any modern artwork. The two-part sale brought in $706 million, exceeding the re-sale high estimate of around $600 million. And in case you’re wondering, the golden toilet did sell, for $12.1 million.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The Klimt sale is the flashy headline, but the results so far are a strong sign for the health of the art market, from the top on down. A significant number of the lower value lots in Christie’s day sales yesterday beat expectations, with 33 of 53 priced under $150,000 exceeding high estimates in the Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper sale. More major sales will take place today and tomorrow, which can confirm whether the market really is on the upswing.

In the latest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Lightstone DIRECT's Sanford Blumenthal about democratizing real estate investing and the unique opportunities available in the industrial sector.

🚀 VC secondaries: The secondary market for shares in pre-IPO companies continues its rapid expansion, with the market growing by 31% last quarter. With three major transactions involving Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab accompanied by rising investor demand, the sector is expected to continue soaring.

🏡 Homebuilder confidence: The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) rose slightly from 37 to 38, but remains well below its average reading of 50. While current sales and buyer traffic reached their highest levels in months, future sales expectations declined.

🤖 Databricks fundraise: It’s only been two months since the AI-related data intelligence startup closed a $1 billion funding round, but the company is reportedly in talks to raise more capital at a $130 billion valuation, 30% above its last valuation.

🪙 World Liberty Financial probe: Two U.S. senators are calling for an investigation into the Trump-linked crypto platform, accusing it of selling tokens illegally to bad actors in North Korea and Russia.

🚀 Longevity startups: While the sector has fallen in popularity recently due to the underperformance of previous unicorns in the space, there have still been plenty of startups that have received funding this year, led by NewLimit’s $130 million round and Insilico Medicine’s $110 million round.

💵 Blue Owl halts withdrawals: As part of the alternative asset manager’s plans to combine its business development company with its publicly-traded company, it paused any redemptions for its billion-dollar private credit fund, and its stock price has slipped significantly.

In a week where the crypto market was down more than 10% and most major coins hit 6-month lows, the biggest loser in the top-100 by market cap was Pump, the native token of the Solana memecoin generator Pump.fun. Altcoins and memecoins have taken a big hit as investors are fleeing riskier assets, and Pump’s value is based upon how robust the memecoin ecosystem is. The token value has seen some wild swings, as evidenced by the graph above, and is an apt illustration of just how much volatility there can be in crypto.