Alternative Investing Report - March 5, 2025

*as of 3/4; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary Evening auction in London generated $80 million, including 19 seven-figure sales out of 38 total lots, though the total fell just short of the $85 million pre-sale high estimate. Overall, 34 of the 38 lots sold for a strong 89% sell-through rate, with ten going above the high estimate and a surprising six selling below the low estimate. The highest grossing piece was Yoshitomo Nara’s “Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake)” which sold for $11.5 million against a high estimate of $10.2 million.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The results were a mixed bag, with some pieces wildly outperforming expectations, such as South African artist Lisa Brice’s “After Embah,” which sold for $6.9 million, more than three times above its high estimate of $1.9 million. For those punk rock fans out there, Blink-182 singer Mark Hoppus’ Banksy painting, “Crude Oil (Vettriano)” sold for $5.4 million, within expectations.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Vincent founder Slava Rubin talks with Argo co-founder Peter Grosskopf about why investors should look to alternatives to beat inflation, and Peter shares lessons from building a digital precious metals investment platform.

Washington, DC is the most sought-after city for renters in the U.S., taking the top spot based on apartment searches, listings viewed and listings favorited. It was followed by Atlanta, St. Paul, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia, as renters target smaller, more affordable cities. Meanwhile, Austin took over the #1 spot for remote workers, followed by Nashville and San Antonio. This ranking was based on factors including the cost of living, the local job market, and the climate.

➨ TAKEAWAY: Austin, Nashville and San Antonio have all seen average rents decline in the last year, making those markets more desirable to renters. Affordability still reigns supreme, and cities on these lists become cyclical, as increased demand eventually pushes rents higher, which then lowers demand. For investors, it is always important to know which markets are seeing more interest and activity as it could indicate strong buying opportunities going forward.

🤖 Anthropic closes raise: After weeks of rumors, the AI startup closed a $3.5 billion Series E raise at a post-money valuation of $61.5 billion, nearly tripling its value and minting several new billionaires. It has seen revenue grow by more than 1,000% in the last year, reaching $1 billion in ARR.

🚀 CoreWeave IPO: In what would be the first major tech IPO of the year, the AI cloud provider officially filed for an IPO and will trade under the ticker CRWV on Nasdaq. It posted revenue of $1.9 billion in 2024, a staggering 737% increase over the year before.

🏢 CRE trends positive: Commercial real estate prices were up 0.3% year-over-year in January, with retail and industrial leading the way, but office properties still struggling, posting a 10% year-over-year decline in central business districts.

💵 Walgreens’ $10B PE deal: The private equity firm Sycamore Partners is closing in on a $10 billion deal to take the pharmacy giant Walgreen’s private, which would be the biggest PE acquisition of 2025 so far.

🪙 Alt season disappearing: There has long been a pattern in the crypto market where smaller crypto tokens referred to as “altcoins” perform well at the end of a bull market when traders who profited on Bitcoin would gamble on more volatile coins. However, recently, prominent altcoins have been trading more in tandem with Bitcoin and have lost more value since the inauguration.

💵 Morningstar acquires Lumonic: The research and financial services firm Morningstar bought Lumonic, a private credit portfolio monitoring platform, which will allow its subsidiary Pitchbook to expand into private credit portfolio monitoring and eventually expand to private equity and venture capital.

In what has been a wild and volatile week of crypto, owing largely to President Trump’s announcement about a possible strategic national crypto reserve, one of the five tokens he named, Cardano, has seen the highest price gain of any token in the top-100 by market cap. It initially spiked in price by more than 60% but gave back some of the gains, as even prominent pro-crypto investors showed skepticism about the reserve. In the bull market that developed after the election, Cardano reached a high of $1.23 before slowly falling to below $0.65 before the latest catalyst. It should continue to get attention every time the reserve makes news, but don’t be surprised if the price slowly falls in the intervening periods.