Alternative Investing Report - May 14, 2025

*as of 5/13; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

Inflation hit a 4-year low in April, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showing a 2.3% annual gain and 0.2% monthly gain, both below expectations. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, also rose by 0.2% monthly with an annual gain of 2.8%. Neither the stock market nor the crypto market reacted in a significant way to the report.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The “Liberation Day” tariffs did not seem to affect inflation in April, but the effects are still likely to show up in later readings, which is part of why the reaction to the report was muted. And though inflation is nearing the Fed’s target of 2%, the uncertainty over future inflation reports means they are likely to wait to cut interest rates. Most traders and experts expect the Fed to hold rates steady in June, with the next cut not coming until September.

In this episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talked with FranShares founder and CEO Kenny Rose about investing into franchises, the similarities to real estate and private credit, and why the asset class is a great hedge against recession.

Sotheby’s Modern Evening auction last night brought in $186.4 million, barely above the pre-sale low estimate of $170.3 million. However, its centerpiece item - a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti with a $70 million pre-sale estimate - failed to sell. Another item of note, a lamp designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, sold for $7.5 million, above the high estimate of $5 million, setting a new auction record for the famed architect. Meanwhile, at the Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 31 of the 36 lots sold for a total of $51.95 million, above the low estimate of $45.7 million.

➨ TAKEAWAY: These results were in line with Monday’s auctions at Christie’s, with the totals coming in slightly above the pre-sale low estimates, meaning the sales were not rousing successes nor spectacular failures. One trend of note is that the seven lots at Phillips with the lowest pre-sale estimates all exceeded their high estimates, as more affordable pieces continued to sell better.

🚀 VC issues: Funds that were launched since 2019 have typically underperformed the market. As a result of limited exit activity they have not been consistently paying distributions to investors. Overall, the total value of VC assets under management has declined since 2022.

🪙 Dubai accepting crypto: As part of a partnership with Crypto.com, the government of Dubai will allow government fees to be paid by crypto, becoming the latest country to take that step.

🤖 Perplexity fundraise: The AI search startup is nearing a $500 million funding round at a $14 billion valuation, well above its $9 billion valuation in December, but below its reported target of $18 billion.

🏢 RE tokenization: Real estate asset manager Patel Real Estate Holdings launched a $100 million tokenized fund that is investing in Class A multifamily buildings in the U.S. and will be open to accredited investors.

🏈 Chargers selling stake to PE: The Los Angeles Chargers might be the next NFL team to sell a minority stake of the franchise to a private equity firm, as they are reportedly in advanced talks with Arctos Partners.

🎨 Tiffany window: The Goddard Memorial Window, made in 1910 by Tiffany Studios, is coming to auction next month at Christie’s with a $2 million - $3 million estimate.

Bitcoin has been on a strong run over the past month, and what historically follows is a strong run by other top coins - see Ethereum’s 45% gain over the prior week - before money trickles down into memecoins as traders chase higher returns. The memecoin dogwifhat has led the way with its price more than doubling in the past week, and every other major memecoin is up at least 25%, with many up significantly more. However, dogwifhat is still below its value at the time of Trump’s inauguration, and is down more than 63% in the past year, underscoring how volatile memecoins can be.