Alternative Investing Report - November 20, 2024

*as of 11/19; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

TikTok parent company ByteDance is reportedly now valued at $300 billion, making it the most valuable private company in the world. This valuation is based on a recent share buyback, and comes as ByteDance still faces a deadline of January 19th to sell the social media app or face a ban in the U.S.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The election results have prompted optimism for ByteDance as there is a growing belief that the Trump administration is going to try and reverse the TikTok ban. However, that will require Congress to pass a new law, as U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal reminded Trump yesterday. Additionally, Trump’s pick for FCC chair, Brendan Carr, has written in the past that he supports the TikTok ban. The price jump indicates expectations for the incoming administration, but investors should be cautious as there could be a pullback if Trump does not end up reversing the ban.

In case you missed it, Vincent co-founder Slava Rubin and Marcelo Ballvé, Pre-IPO analyst at Sacra, analyzed Stripe, the global payments platform last valued at $95 billion. They dug into the company’s growth, strengths, challenges, IPO prospects, and answered investor questions.

Belgian Surrealist master René Magritte’s 1954 painting “L’empire des Lumières” sold for $121.2 million last night at Christie’s Mica Ertegun Collection auction, exceeding the pre-sale estimate of $95 million. The result set a new record for the artist, and was the biggest auction sale of the year thus far. Christie’s also held its 20th Century Evening Sale, which was highlighted by a $68.3 million sale of Ed Ruscha’s 1964 “Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half,” which beat its pre-sale estimate of $50 million.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The Mica Ertegun auction saw all 19 of its lots sell, with 8 exceeding their high estimate, a strong result. Meanwhile, the 20th Century Evening Sale saw 12 of its 53 lots failed to sell, and only 11 exceed their high estimate. This mirrored the Sotheby’s mixed results from Monday, where its single-owner collection auction also had a 100% sell-through rate and its standard evening auction saw mediocre results.

🏡 Home prices still rising: The Redfin Home Price Index saw U.S. home prices increase by 0.5% in October and 5.9% year-over-year, marking the 12th consecutive month of growth between 0.2%-0.7%. The lack of supply on the market has kept prices growing steadily despite high mortgage rates.

🚀 TEC fundraise: German SpaceX competitor The Exploration Company raised $160 million, as European space startups have seen nearly double the funding in 2024 that they did in 2023.

🍷 Guide to wine auctions: Six tips from Heritage Auctions on what to look for at wine auctions, including researching provenance, understanding your risk tolerance, and looking at past sales to find pricing trends.

🏢 Growing CRE optimism: Investors are optimistic that the commercial real estate market has hit its bottom, and with lower interest rates, an improved economy, and more return-to-office mandates, now could be a good time to invest in the asset class.

🪙 Trump Media targeting crypto platform: In yet another sign of the crypto-friendly intentions of the incoming administration, Trump Media is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Bakkt, whose former CEO is the co-chair of Trump’s inauguration committee.

🚀 ServiceTitan files for IPO: The cloud software company that competes with Salesforce and SAP filed to go public on Nasdaq, following 24% revenue growth year-over-year, though it is still unprofitable.

🎬 Propstore auction: More than 1,800 lots of entertainment memorabilia sold over the four day auction, led by a Star Wars stormtrooper helmet that sold for $412,000, the “Marauder’s Map” from Harry Potter that sold for $300,000, and a guitar belonging to Oasis’s Noel Gallagher that sold for $285,000.

Mantra is a blockchain network that focuses on tokenized real-world assets, including real estate and artwork, with the goal of enabling trading to bring liquidity to these asset classes. It partnered with Google Cloud in October, but its price only surged this week, jumping from $1.50 to over $4, hitting its all-time high. There are concerns of market manipulation, as 95% of the circulating supply is held by “whales” - addresses with more than 1% of the supply. That type of concentration leaves Mantra’s price up to the whims of large token holders, meaning a large drop could come if any decide to take profits.

Advertiser’s Disclosures

¹ Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur.

² The rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period.

³ A minimum investment of $1,950 is required to receive bonus shares. 100% bonus shares are offered on investments of $9,950+.

⁴ Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation A+ Offering.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Start-up investments are speculative and involve a high degree of risk. Those investors who cannot afford to lose their entire investment should not invest in start-ups. Companies seeking startup investment tend to be in earlier stages of development and their business model, products and services may not yet be fully developed, operational or tested in the public marketplace. There is no guarantee that the stated valuation and other terms are accurate or in agreement with the market or industry valuations. Further, investors may receive illiquid and/or restricted stock that may be subject to holding period requirements and/or liquidity concerns.