Alternative Investing Report - December 31, 2025

*as of 12/30; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

This year, we looked in-depth at investment opportunities in a number of alternative asset classes, many of which are under the radar.

🏢 Invest in the Industrial Real Estate Boom: Industrial real estate is the only sector within commercial real estate with a positive three-year return, and has by far the strongest 5 and 10-year returns.

🪙 The World's First Bitcoin Life Insurance: Life insurance denominated in Bitcoin is the ideal product for anyone that thinks Bitcoin will appreciate in price over the long-term and want to tax-efficiently tap into that value during their lifetime.

💰 A Simple Digital Way to Invest in Gold: The price of gold hit a dozens of record highs in 2025, and was at an all-time high of $2,956/oz when this was published - it has since surpassed $4,500/oz.

💵 Build a Diversified Private Credit Portfolio: Like any investing strategy, building a diversified portfolio is a key principle in a sound strategy, but it can be hard to access institutional-grade deals and find quality credit managers.

🏦 A Unique Asset Class for a Volatile Time: One asset class that continues to fly under the radar is investing into small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), partially because of how difficult it is for individual investors to enter the space.

🍔 Generate Passive Income by Investing into Franchises: Franchises are often overlooked as investment opportunities despite their prominence in our everyday lives, and their ability to generate significant profits for their investors.

🔋 Investing in Energy Infrastructure: It is estimated that global infrastructure investment needs will exceed $100 trillion by 2040, with energy infrastructure requiring more than $4 trillion annually.

🧑‍⚖️ Invest in Litigation Finance: Litigation finance is an alternative investment class that has risen in prominence in the past few years, attracting capital from institutions and high net-worth individuals seeking uncorrelated returns.

🏡 Sustainable Wellness-Oriented Housing: The wellness real estate market grew by 18% annually from 2019-2023 and is projected to maintain a 15.8% growth rate through 2028, bringing the total global market to more than $912 billion.

🏡 Home prices are up: October’s S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index showed a 0.4% gain in U.S. housing prices, with a 1.4% increase year-over-year. Chicago and New York recorded the best annual gains by metro areas, while Phoenix and Dallas had the biggest annual declines.

🏡 FHFA House Price Index: October’s FHFA House Price Index also showed a 0.4% monthly gain, above the expected 0.1% gain, and the index is up 1.7% annually. It should be noted that both this and the Case-Shiller measure show that housing prices are lagging the rate of inflation significantly, meaning that prices are declining when adjusted for inflation.

🤖 Meta acquires Manus: In another major tech acquisition, Meta is buying the AI agentic startup Manus for a reported sum of more than $2 billion, four times its last valuation of $500 million in April.

🏢 Good year for industrial: The average rent per square foot for industrial properties increased 5.7% annually, and total sales hit $68.4 billion, the most since 2022. Vacancy rate has increased, but a slowdown in supply should see that trend reverse going forward.

⚾ Memory Lane winter auction: The auction house that specializes in vintage sports cards will have the first major auction of 2026, featuring more than 1,450 lots, including a pair of Ty Cobb cards expected to fetch six figures each.

💵 Family office emergence: Firms that manage the money of wealthy families now have nearly $7 trillion in AUM, a huge rise over the last five years, and have become major players in the private market.

While the use of generative AI has been highly controversial in Hollywood, the Indian film industry - Bollywood - has been much more open to its use as a time saving and cost cutting tool. Young filmmakers are turning to AI tools to create entire films, and more established directors are using it for complex effects and de-aging actors. While there is still opposition to some uses of AI, such as when a production company used AI to alter a film’s previous ending without its director’s consent, its prevalence is showing its disruptive potential. It is also a reminder that the a U.S.-centric approach to AI’s future is limiting, as even if Hollywood never comes around to AI, there are film industries worldwide that might.