Alternative Investing Report - February 12, 2026

*as of 2/11 Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

The delayed U.S. jobs report was released yesterday and exceeded expectations, showing 130,000 jobs created in January, and a drop in the unemployment rate. Wage growth also beat expectations, but a revision to the 2025 numbers undercut the optimism. The annual revision based on unemployment tax records showed that there were 900,000 fewer jobs last March than originally counted, and the economy actually lost jobs in the final six months of the year.

➨ TAKEAWAY: While January’s growth is promising, the labor market has been relatively stagnant over the past year. The market reaction was neutral, with stocks mostly flat, crypto slightly down, and investors now not expecting a Fed rate cut until at least June. Mortgage rates are also likely to jump slightly with interest rate cuts now a bit father away.

🏡 Housing affordability improves: The annual salary needed to buy the typical U.S. home fell by 4% in the past year, as housing prices and mortgage rates both decreased in 2025. Americans now need to earn $111,252 per year to only spend 30% of their income on a mortgage, a significant drop from the $122,000 that was needed last June.

🪙 Blockfills suspends withdrawals: In the wake of the significant loss of value in the crypto market, the crypto lender has temporarily suspended client withdrawals and deposits, a massive warning sign for both its clients and the industry as a whole.

🤖 Anthropic resignation: Mrinank Sharma, the head of an AI safety team at Anthropic, resigned his position and indicated his intention to leave the field in a public resignation letter that also stated that “the world is in peril.” He is not the first to leave a major AI startup with citing ethical concerns, but this is undoubtedly a little unsettling.

🚀 Solace Health reaches unicorn status: The healthtech startup aiming to help patients navigate the U.S. healthcare system raised a $130 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation, in advance of a potential 2028 IPO.

🎨 Art Basel Qatar recap: The first edition of the major art fair exceeded sales expectations, particularly for smaller and mid-market items, with most sales in the five and six figures.

💵 Private credit eyes healthcare: January saw the proportion of private lending deals to the tech sector fall on an annual basis, while deals to the healthcare sector rose significantly.

In the age of apps and with mobile internet usage now outpacing desktop usage worldwide, it wouldn’t seem that prime domain names would have as much value. Well, Crypto.com founder Kris Marszalek would clearly disagree, as having a memorable name has helped his crypto company, and he just dropped a record-breaking $70 million on AI.com. However, when it debuted to the public in an $8 million Super Bowl ad, the traffic caused the site to crash, not exactly an auspicious debut. When working, the site will offer consumers access to a personal AI agent, and perhaps its Super Bowl fiasco will go down as an example of “there’s no such thing as bad PR.”