Alternative Investing Report - December 3, 2025

*as of 12/2; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

As we head into December with 2026 just around the corner, people are starting to think about what next year could bring across asset classes. Real estate company Redfin just released its predictions for the year ahead, which it believes will be the beginning of a “Great Housing Reset” which will see gradual increases in home sales and prices. It projects median home prices to rise by just 1% and sales of existing homes to jump by 3%. This is in contrast to the National Association of Realtors, who last month forecast a whopping 14% increase in home sales and 4% increase in home prices. Both Redfin and NAR expect mortgage rates to decline, which should spur more activity in the housing market.

➨ TAKEAWAY: 2025 has seen the housing market shift dramatically towards buyers, and most experts expect 2026 to continue that trend. Similar to Redfin, Zillow forecasts a 1.2% increase in prices next year, and even at the high end a 4% appreciation rate is relatively low. There will likely be big differences between regions, as Rust Belt metro areas are expected to continue to outperform Sun Belt metros, particularly those in Texas and Florida. As with a lot of asset classes, real estate will be particularly affected by potential interest rate cuts - if there are enough to push the average mortgage rate to the mid-5s or lower, it could have a significant impact on prices and sales. If mortgage rates remain mostly unchanged, 2026 will likely resemble 2025.

In this episode, Vincent CEO Eric Cantor, ARK Invest's Cathie Wood, EquityZen's Atish Davda and Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund explore the evolving landscape of private markets and venture capital, focusing on how individual investors can navigate these opportunities. The panel discusses emerging pre-IPO companies, innovations in fintech, national security, and the future of space exploration, as well as the potential of quantum computing. Insights are shared on investment strategies, product risks, and the importance of understanding market dynamics.

🪙 Crypto recovery: After a rough Sunday, the crypto markets roared back on Monday, clawing back those losses, with the total market cap rising more than 6% and Bitcoin clawing back above the $90,000 mark.

🥚 $30 million Fabergé egg: The “Winter Egg” sold for $30.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction, setting an all-time record and eclipsing the $26 million high estimate.

🚀 Secondaries fundraising: Private secondaries funds have already raised $105 billion this year, nearly matching last year’s total and on pace to shatter the all-time record. While VC fundraising has fallen 43% year-over-year and PE fundraising has dropped 32%, secondaries fundraising is up 22%.

🏢 CRE prices climbing: CoStar’s Commercial Repeat-Sale Indices (CCRSI) report showed that CRE prices rose for the fifth straight month, boosting its value-weighted index 0.5% and its equal-weighted index 0.9%. Sales volume increased 16.3% year-over-year as well as the sector comes back to life.

🤖 Black Forest Labs fundraise: The German AI image generator startup raised a $300 million round at a $3.25 billion valuation, more than tripling its valuation in less than a year, as generative AI continues to show positive momentum.

🎨 Art Basel Miami: With the major art fair kicking off this Friday, ArtNews takes a look at the new layout of the fair and previews some of the buzzier artworks that will be on display and for sale this weekend.

One of the most resilient tokens over the crypto market downturn of the last two months has been Zcash, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that allows for anonymized transactions. Though it has been around since 2016 and hit a high above $700 per coin in 2018, it was under $50 as recently as this September. A renewed interest in privacy tokens sent the price shooting up quickly, rising by 1400% in just five weeks to a new all-time high of $735 before rapidly falling in the last week. While it is still significantly higher than it was before its recent exponential gain, the coin has lost nearly 60% of its value since its peak.