Alternative Investing Report - December 17, 2025

*as of 12/16; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

The latest U.S. jobs report contained two months of data due to the government shutdown, showing a net loss of 105,000 jobs in October and a gain of 64,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate rose from 4.4% to 4.6% and is now at its highest level in more than four years. One strong sign from the report is that average wages are up 3.5% year-over-year, which is outpacing inflation.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The labor market is cooling, with three months of net job losses so far this year, the first negative months since 2020. Markets had a mixed reaction to the news, as it indicates economic weakness, but it could also lead to quicker rate cuts to stimulate hiring. The Fed has to balance unemployment and inflation, and with wage growth still ahead of inflation, there could be room for further cuts.

In this episode, Slava Rubin talks with Ben Miller, founder and CEO of Fundrise, about the past three years in the real estate market, and his predictions for 2026.

🏡 Most popular 2025 markets: Rockford, IL tops Zillow’s lists of the most popular U.S. cities for home shoppers, followed by Berkeley, CA, and Albany, NY. Six of the top ten locations come from the Midwest, and most of the markets have an average home price under $350,000.

🤖 Intel and SambaNova: Chip giant Intel is reportedly on the verge of acquiring AI chipmaking startup SambaNova Systems for $1.6 billion, significantly below the seller’s $5 billion valuation from 2021.

🪙 JPMorgan tokenization: The Wall Street giant is launching its first tokenized investment fund, another example of traditional finance embracing crypto. The fund — which will sit on the Ethereum blockchain — will be open to qualified investors.

🏢 Fear & Greed index: The Q4 Burns + CRE Daily Fear and Greed Index posted its strongest reading of the year, reflecting improving investor sentiment as the sector closes out a year marked by steady recovery.

🚀 Lightspeed record raise: The venture firm announced it raised $9 billion across six new funds, the largest fundraise in its history.

🎨 Whitney biennial: The prestigious and long-running contemporary art exhibition named 56 artists for its March event, most of whom are under 45 years old and can be considered potential breakthrough artists in 2026.

While the crypto market is down 6% as a whole in the last week, brand new Midnight token was the top performer in the top-100 by market cap. Midnight is a new privacy-focused sidechain project in the Cardano ecosystem and in the week since it launched it has topped $1 billion in market cap. Crypto traders do love a shiny new token, so expect short-term price volatility and a potential decline once the hype wears off. Still, one of the other top performers this week was Monero, one of the original privacy-focused tokens, and one of the top performers of the past few months has been the privacy coin Zcash, so privacy coins are clearly having a moment.