Alternative Investing Report - April 1, 2025

*as of 3/31; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

Last week, the SEC announced it was not pursuing any charges against Crypto.com and it dropped its cases against the crypto companies Kraken, ConsenSys, and Cumberland. This follows the end of a number of other cases against major crypto companies this year, including those against Binance, Coinbase and Ripple. Meanwhile, President Trump pardoned three co-founders of the exchange BitMEX who had all pled guilty to charges related to money laundering.

➨ TAKEAWAY: This is all part of the largest policy change under the Trump administration, which has pledged to be more crypto-friendly. SEC Chairman Mark T. Uyeda has said that the agency had to "rectify its approach” and act in a “more transparent manner." With the Trump family themselves going deeper into crypto, launching a crypto mining venture this week, expect the SEC to back off of any regulatory enforcement in the industry going forward.

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The AI infrastructure company CoreWeave has seen its stock drop by 7% since its public offering last Friday, and this is after it priced the offering at $40 per share, below the expected range of $47 - $55 per share. It also reduced the number of shares in the offering, dropping the total amount raised from $2.5 billion to $1.5 billion. Still, it was the largest tech IPO and largest U.S. IPO since 2021.

➨ TAKEAWAY: After two days of trading, it’s too early to call the IPO a failure, but it is certainly off to a disappointing start. Part of this could be chalked up to timing - the Nasdaq was down 2.5% on Friday, and the broader equities market has been struggling recently. With investors tending towards risk-off assets, a unprofitable, speculative company like CoreWeave is less attractive in this environment. The next big test of the IPO market is likely to come from the Swedish payments company Klarna - which we will be discussing in an Insiders-only event on April 9.

⚾ Ohtani card record: A 1 of 1 card of Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani related to his historic 50 home run, 50 stolen base 2024 season sold for $1.07 million, doubling the previous record for any Ohtani card.

💵 Vanguard targeting private markets: The world’s second largest asset manager is exploring the option of offering private market assets to individual investors, and has met with alternative asset managers Blackstone and Carlyle in recent months.

🤖 Scale AI tender offer: The AI data startup is targeting a valuation of $25 billion in a potential tender offer, which would represent a significant gain over its last valuation of $14 billion last year.

🚀 Sluggish M&A market: There have been around 1,500 deals in the U.S. in Q1, far off the pace of last year, as interest rates remain high and the uncertainty surrounding tariffs has put a lot of transactions on pause.

🏡 Rent growth leader: Fresno, CA, led all U.S. markets in rent growth in March, as rents rose nationally by 0.6%, but the national vacancy rate has risen to the highest mark since 2017.

🎨 Lost Renoir drawing?: A charcoal drawing bought for $12 at an auction might be actually be the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and if authenticated, could be worth more than $1 million.

Just in time for Opening Day, a California vineyard with a full-size, lighted baseball field is coming up for auction. The 44-acre property also has a 4,500 square-foot main house with 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a swimming pool, and a large pavilion. The vineyard has 30 acres of grapevines and 5 acres of olive trees, producing red wine and olive oil. Besides the baseball field, there is a tasting room and an events center on the property, which will be sold at a no-reserve auction on April 7 if no one meets a $10.5 million asking price before then.