Alternative Investing Report - March 18, 2026

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*as of 3/17; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

Yesterday, Bitcoin rose above $75,000 for the first time in six weeks, capping off a sustained rally over the past 10 days that saw its price rise 15%, with the crypto market as a whole gaining 12%. While Bitcoin and other major coins retreated a bit as the day wore on, Ethereum is still up 14% in the last week, XRP is up 10%, and Solana is up 8%.

➨ TAKEAWAY: While the market is still down significantly from last year’s highs, this rebound in the face of geopolitical uncertainty and a broad stock market slump is a good sign. Two pieces of regulatory news could continue to boost the market, with the SEC declaring that “most crypto assets” are not securities, and news that the Senate is making progress on its crypto market structure bill.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Churchill Asset Management CEO Ken Kencel about the evolution of private credit and the impact of AI on the asset class.

🏡 Pending home sales increase: A slight decline in mortgage rates last month spurred a 1.8% monthly increase in pending home sales, beating expectations and showing that there is pent-up buyer demand waiting for lower rates.

🏡 Homebuilder confidence ticks up: Builder confidence rose one point to 38, as the market for newly-built homes looked slightly more promising last month, though the survey responses were given before the war began.

🚀 Fundrise delays VCX: The investing platform’s public listing of its venture-focused Innovation Fund was supposed to happen yesterday but has been pushed to Thursday for now, due in part to war-induced market volatility.

🏢 Mall traffic growing: All types of malls saw strong year-over-year growth in foot traffic, with open-air centers leading the way with a 7.3% gain, followed by outlet malls at 7.2% and indoor malls at 5%.

🤖 Senators want Seedance shut down: Multiple U.S. lawmakers have told ByteDance’s CEO that the new version of its AI video generator Seedance needs to be shut down due to “glaring” copyright infringement. The app’s global launch had already been delayed due to pressure from Hollywood studios, but this is another blow to the TikTok parent company as it stalls further and may not launch at all.

⚾ Vintage card quality: While third-party grading is still important, the actual print quality of a vintage card, which is often not a major part of the grade, is taking on greater importance to collectors as part of overall “eye appeal.”

In a strong week for crypto, the top performer among the biggest tokens by market cap was Bittensor, the native token of the decentralized platform for advancing artificial intelligence. Its price had fallen to as low as $165 earlier this month, and though it is still down significantly from highs near $500 last November, it staged a strong comeback this week for multiple reasons. First, the Grayscale Bittensor Trust turned 90 days old, so its private placement holding period was reduced from 1 year to six months. Second, and more directly, research lab Covenant AI launched a new model designed to operate on the Bittensor network, which spurred demand. Generally, AI-related tokens had a strong week, and as the biggest, TAO saw a significant benefit.