Alternative Investing Report - March 7, 2025

*as of 3/6; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, 30YM

A number of prominent IPO candidates appear slated to go public, starting with AI cloud provider CoreWeave, which has already filed and just acquired the developer platform Weights & Biases for $1.7 billion. Next in line may be the Swedish fintech startup Klarna, which is reportedly eyeing a $1 billion IPO at a $15 billion valuation and may file in the coming days. Finally, the chat platform Discord is reportedly in early discussions with investment banks about a possible IPO in the near future.

➨ TAKEAWAY: There has been a lot of speculation about the IPO window cracking open a bit further in 2025, and these would be three major tech IPOs from companies that have been prime candidates to go public for years. While many top startups have been eschewing the option of going public in favor of additional funding rounds, tender offers, secondary sales, and other methods of creating liquidity for employees and early investors, it is a promising sign that these three companies are pushing forward with their IPO plans. If they prove successful, expect other major startups to follow their lead.

The day before the highly anticipated White House Crypto Summit, President Trump signed an executive order establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve. The move had been widely expected, and the structure hotly debated, and the order shed more light on it. The reserve will only hold Bitcoin, though the order also established a more general U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile. Both will only store assets the U.S. government already owns from criminal and civil forfeiture proceedings, meaning it will not purchase any additional digital assets with taxpayer money.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The crypto market reacted negatively to the news, with Bitcoin falling around 4%, and the other potential reserve tokens - Ethereum, Solana, Ripple, and Cardano, also losing value. The fact that the government is not planning to purchase additional assets means that no additional buying pressure will be added by the resr. The U.S. government already controls approximately 200,000 bitcoin, currently worth around $18 billion. However, the endorsement of Bitcoin as a store of value by the government is a positive long-term signal for the asset class.

Vincent founder Slava Rubin and Sacra co-founder Jan-Erik Asplund did a deep dive into Glean, the multi-billion dollar AI startup helping companies get the most out of their enterprise data. They looked at Glean’s growth trajectory, the competitive landscape and a possible IPO timeline.

🏀 Debut Kobe and Jordan jerseys: The first jerseys ever worn on an NBA court by Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are set to be auctioned off at Sotheby’s, with each carrying $10 million pre-sale estimates.

🎨 Christie’s modern sale: The auction house’s modern evening art sales generated a robust $166.6 million, above pre-sale estimates, with a 90% sell-through rate and nearly half the lots selling above their high estimates.

🏡 Investor activity decreases: The number of homes bought by investors in the U.S. in Q4 fell by 3.9% year-over-year and hit the lowest level for a fourth quarter since 2016, with a particularly sharp decline in Florida.

🤖 Alibaba’s new AI model: The Chinese tech giant released “QwQ-32B,” an AI reasoning model that it claims outperforms its homegrown competitor DeepSeek, prompting its stock to surge by 8%.

🏢 Family offices targeting CRE: Over the past year and a half, 28% of family offices have added to their commercial real estate holdings, and 44% intend to expand their portfolios over the next year.

🚀 Reddit founder eyeing TikTok: Alexis Ohanian, prominent VC and founder, has joined an effort to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations, with the intention of bringing the social media platform on-chain.

Monday: 🪙 Crypto reserve, 🏡 Austin rental market
Tuesday: 📉 Tariff concerns, 💰 Gold gains
Wednesday: 🎨 Auction recap, 🏡 Top rental cities
Thursday: 💵 Private Equity rebound, 🎨 AI art auction

Have a great weekend!