*as of 8/11; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

Over the weekend, Goldin’s 2026 Summer TCG Elite Auction generated $18 million in sales, with seven cards topping $500,000 and twelve topping $200,000. The top result was for a 1999 Promo Bulbasaur card that sold for more than $800,000, with a similar Promo Charmander card also going for $640,000. It’s not just trading cards that are generating massive sales, as three mint-condition unopened Pokémon Game Boy games just sold for a record $2 million in a private sale.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The Pokémon craze is showing no signs of slowing down, with top sales at Goldin representing significant gains over previous sales and comps. The promo cards have fewer than twenty known copies in existence, and trophy cards, one of which sold for more than $700,000, are generally one of one. The $2 million video game sale was for three first print copies, two of which were graded a perfect 10 by PSA, an exceptionally rare grade. Scarcity is driving the gain in values, with these rare items becoming blue-chip collectibles.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Corner Ventures and Aurite AI’s John Caddedu about his 25-year VC journey, incubating AI startups, and investing into farmland.

🚀 More unicorns than ever: In the first half of the year, 195 startups reached “unicorn status by passing the $1 billion valuation milestone, more than hit that mark in all of 2025. Sectors leading the way were primarily AI-related, particularly in robotics, infrastructure and defense.

🏡 Existing home sales fall: U.S. existing-home sales dipped 1.7% monthly but were up 0.7% year-over-year, staying surprisingly stable despite the recent rise in mortgage rates. Median sales prices increased 2% year-over-year and currently sit at $434,100, an all-time high.

🤖 AI VC records: More than $400 billion has been raised by AI startups globally through the first half of the year, ahead of the total for all of last year, though nearly half of that came from OpenAI and Anthropic. Similarly, exit value hit an all-time high of $391 billion though $250 billion of that came from SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI.

💵 Private equity backlog: There are now more than 33,000 unsold portfolio companies held by private equity firms, a record-high and double the amount from a decade ago. Difficulty finding buyers willing to pay for assets at inflated valuations has led to a slowdown in exit activity and a liquidity crunch.

📊 Small business optimism ticks up: The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index jumped by 2.4 points in July to 99.8, which pushed it back above its 52-year historical average. This rise was driven by improvement in hiring plans and capital outlay expectations, despite an overall increase in owners’ uncertainty.

⚽ Bezos buying share of Liverpool: A group of investors including Jeff Bezos is acquiring 30% of the English Premier League club Liverpool for a reported £1.35 billion, valuing the team at around $6 billion. This is another recent example of high net-worth investors and private equity groups buying shares of well-known sports teams.

The native token of Ondo, a tokenization platform focused on Real-World Assets (RWAs), dropped more in the past week than any other token in the top-50 by market cap. This decline came despite a new partnership with the crypto exchange KuCoin, and its tokenized stock platform crossing $1 billion in total value locked. One potential reason for the decline this week is related to founder Nathan Allman’s tragic death at age 32 in late May. This week, Allman’s mother sued to remove the new CEO Ian De Bode and give her control of the company, leading to uncertainty over the future direction of the company. Ondo’s token price has fallen 66% in the past year, though it has mostly traded flat since January, despite Allman’s unexpected passing.