Alternative Investing Report - March 5, 2026

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

Investment platform Fundrise is planning an IPO of its Innovation Fund, a venture fund that holds shares of major pre-IPO companies such as Anthropic, Databricks, OpenAI, Anduril, and SpaceX. The fund will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker VCX and will likely go public early next week. Existing investors are subject to a 6 month lockup period, after which they will be able to access full liquidity, a rarity in the asset class.

➨ TAKEAWAY: This IPO news comes right as Robinhood’s own venture fund (RVI) is set to go public tomorrow, also with a significant Databricks position. The two funds represent a step forward in providing retail investors with access to major pre-IPO startups. The question is how much the pent-up demand will send share prices above the Innovation Fund’s net asset value (NAV), particularly if supply is limited due to the lock-up. There also may be a significant run-up in the next six months, and then a correction once holders are able to sell. How RVI trades when it debuts could be instructive for how VCX will perform, though it lacks a similar lock-up factor.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Tether co-founder Reeve Collins about the evolution of stablecoins and their role in the future of finance.

🪙 Crypto values surge: Bitcoin rose past $70,000 for the first time in nearly three weeks, and the crypto market as a whole climbed more than 6% after a broader market recovery and a pro-crypto post by President Trump on social media.

🚀 Record month for VC funding: Global VC funding hit $189 billion in February, an all-time high, though that was largely because of OpenAI’s record-breaking $110 billion round, with Anthropic’s $30 billion raise and Waymo’s $16 billion raise also contributing. Seed stage funding, on the other hand, was down 11% year-over-year.

📊 ADP job report: Private companies added 63,000 jobs in February, above expectations, and a substantial gain over January’s revised 11,000 number, a result that helped drive markets to a positive day.

🏡 Investor activity ticks up: The number of U.S. investor home purchases rose 2% annually in Q4, but there is a significant regional difference. West Coast cities saw significant gains, led by Seattle at +37%, while Florida metros saw the biggest declines, with Orlando falling the most at -16%.

🏢 Multifamily optimism rising: Berkadia’s Multifamily Investor Sentiment Survey found that nearly three-quarters of investors who responded plan on expanding their multifamily portfolios this year. They also expect opportunities to continue to get better in the second half of the year and through 2027.

🤖 Eight Sleep fundraise: The AI-driven health tech startup raised $50 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, 50% higher than its $1 billion valuation from last August.

The OpenAI-Anthropic rivalry has been heating up in recent weeks, starting with a viral moment at an AI event in India where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to hold hands during a group photo. Since then, it’s become clear that the two men simply do not like each other. Beyond the personal drama, there is a real battle for AI superiority between the two companies and the winner could shape the industry for the foreseeable future. Anthropic recently clashed with the Pentagon over the military’s use of its systems, which led the Trump administration to stop all federal agencies from using Anthropic products. OpenAI immediately stepped in and struck a deal with the government, a move that seems to have backfired. Anthropic’s Claude app hit #1 in the App Store and OpenAI’s ChatGPT saw a spike in uninstalls. Anthropic has been closing the gap on OpenAI, and this latest tussle seems to have turned out in their favor.