Alternative Investing Report - July 3, 2025

*as of 7/2; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

The crypto market rose more than 3% yesterday, with Bitcoin hitting its highest price in three weeks and other major coins such as Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Cardano all seeing gains around 8% over the last 24 hours. Ethereum has seen a boost from recent prominent tokenizations on its blockchain, and ETH-related public companies also saw significant gains.

➨ TAKEAWAY: There have been several positive market catalysts in the last week, starting with Robinhood tokenizing shares of private companies including SpaceX and OpenAI. One common criticism of crypto is that there aren’t enough use cases, but the trend towards tokenizing real world assets could end up being a significant one. There has also been good news surrounding crypto ETFs, with the SEC approving Grayscale’s fund conversion and reportedly looking to fast track other ETF approvals. The easier it is to invest in crypto and the more reasons to do so, the stronger the market will be.

Four private market product innovators talk about how investors can build yield-generating portfolios. They discuss the volatile investment landscape, the importance of cash flow in portfolios, and the various options available to investors. A must watch for anyone looking to build up investment cash flow.

A pair of Old Masters auctions took place in London over the past two nights, with Christie’s Old Masters evening sale generating $75.2 million in sales, the bulk of which came on a record-breaking $43.7 million sale of a Canaletto painting. Sotheby’s Old Master and 19th Century Paintings evening auction saw a total of $19.7 million in sales, with 10 lots going for more than their pre-sale high estimates. Two of the three most prominent lots did not sell, but a previously “lost” J.M.W. Turner painting ended up selling for $2.6 million, more than six times its high estimate.

➨ TAKEAWAY: Both auctions had solid sell-through rates — beating pre-sale estimates — and Christie’s had 12 paintings go for seven figures. Old Masters tends to be a less dynamic and interesting market than 20th and 21st century art, but these sales show that there is still life in the category.

🤖 OpenAI tokens: A week after the investment platform Republic announced its plans to create mirror tokens for pre-IPO startups, it is now opening up investment into its OpenAI token, designed to give investors exposure to the AI startup’s upside.

🚀 Grammarly buys Superhuman: AI writing software startup Grammarly announced its acquisition of AI-powered email client Superhuman, which was last valued at $825 million.

🏢 Tax bill passes Senate: While the ultimate fate of Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” is still up in the air, the version that the Senate passed has significant wins for the commercial real estate industry, with several pro-housing tax provisions.

🏡 Mortgage applications increase: Even a small decrease in mortgage rates led to a 2.7% weekly increase in mortgage applications, showing the pent-up buying demand that is just waiting for rates to decrease further.

🎵 Music royalties investing: The private equity firm Bain Capital is teaming with Warner Music Group for a $1.2 billion joint venture to invest in music catalogs, a growing alternative asset class that can see returns of 15-20% annually.

💵 Hedge funds targeting private credit: Major hedge funds like Millennium, Point72, and Third Point are all looking to launch new private credit strategies, adding to the already crowded asset class.

After only a few weeks on Spotify, the band The Velvet Sundown has attracted 750,000 listeners and one of their songs has more than 500,000 streams. Why is this in any way newsworthy? Because the Velvet Sundown is an AI band, with songs created on the music generation platform Suno and supplemented with AI-generated photos. AI-generated music is starting to proliferate on Spotify and other streaming platforms, with some “artists” racking up millions of streams. The music industry is fighting back, and there is a strong possibility their lawsuits could end up being more successful than others that have already failed, as AI-generated music is already starting to harm real musicians in the market.