Alternative Investing Report - December 30, 2025

*as of 12/29; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

Our podcast, Smart Humans with Slava Rubin, featured many notable guests this year, and some highlights included:

In this episode, Slava talked with EquityZen CEO Atish Davda about market predictions, investment strategies, and the evolving landscape of pre-IPO investing.

In this episode, Slava Rubin talked with Meanwhile's CEO and co-founder Zac Townsend about life insurance denominated in Bitcoin, thinking long-term, and innovating fintech forward.

More of our favorite episodes included legendary VC investor Tim Draper, Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi, Worth Media and 1-800-FLOWERS founder Jim McCann, Multicoin Capital founder Kyle Samani, and Vintage Investments founder Alan Feld.

You can also revisit our predictions for 2025 from January to see how we did, and look for our 2026 predictions early next month.

📉 Precious metals fall back: In what was perhaps an inevitable development, the prices of gold, silver and other precious metals tumbled yesterday after hitting fresh all-time highs, with gold falling 4.5% and silver nearly 10% before they both ticked up slightly by day’s end.

🏡 Pending home sales: November had an unexpected 3.3% monthly gain in pending home sales, which were also up 2.6% year-over-year, with gains in all four US regions, as wage growth is outpacing home prices and increasing relative affordability.

🚀 Potential cybersecurity IPOs: The successful exits of Wiz, NetSkope, and Rubrik over the past two years has pointed investors towards other startups in the sector that could go public in 2026, including Snyk, ID.me, and Arctic Wolf.

💵 Rough year for BDCs: Publicly-traded private credit business development companies are having their worst year since 2020, with the Cliffwater BDC Index down 6.6%, compared with gains of 14.1% and 25.4% the past two years.

🪙 Crypto ETF outflows: Crypto funds continue to see net outflows, with the total reaching more than $3 billion since October, although relatively new XRP and Solana products had positive inflows last week.

🚘 McLaren 2026 F1 car: The defending champion McLaren racing team’s 2026 F1 car, which has not yet been raced, sold sight unseen for $11.4 million to a buyer who will not receive it until after it completes its next racing season.

Choo-choo! If you’re ever wanted to live in a train car, now’s your chance. Two renovated cabooses attached to a 1945 Pullman car are now up for sale for $780,000. Located in Ocean City, WA, a town of around 200 people on the Pacific just two hours west of Seattle, the property has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and 1,510 square foot of interior space. The current owner lived there full-time, but it has been operated as a vacation rental in the past and would likely have a lot of appeal on AirBNB and VRBO.