Alternative Investing Report - August 13, 2025

*as of 8/12; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, ETH

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation report showed a 0.2% monthly increase in July with the annual increase unchanged at 2.7%, meeting expectations. However, core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, rose by 0.3% monthly and 3.1% annually, the highest annual increase in six months and slightly above expectations. The stock market reacted positively to the news, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing at all-time highs.

➨ TAKEAWAY: While there was evidence that tariff policies have led to slightly increased inflation, it has not yet been the surge that many analysts were worried about. The relatively steady rate of inflation led traders to believe that a Fed rate cut is coming in September, with the CME FedWatch tool now giving it a 94.2% chance, as well as a 62.4% chance of a further cut in October. And bulls feast on rate cuts.

After largely missing out on the massive gains Bitcoin has seen this year, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum, is finally catching up. It rose more than 8% in price yesterday and is up nearly 30% over the past week. Spot Ethereum ETFs recorded more than $1 billion in inflows, and the crypto treasury company Bitmine announced plans to sell $20 billion worth of stock to buy more ETH.

➨ TAKEAWAY: It is not just Ethereum that has been surging, as Solana (+21%), Cardano (+17%) and other major altcoins have had big weeks as well. Public companies announcing bigger and bigger ETH purchases have been boosting demand in the market significantly, but it is unclear how sustainable this is. Vincent co-founders Eric Cantor and Adam Katz discussed crypto treasury companies and what investors should know about them last week.

📊 Small business optimism rises: The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose 1.7 points to 100.3, and now sits above its 52-year average rating. The main factors in the improved rating are owners reporting better overall business health and more positive expectations on business conditions going forward.

🪨 Mars meteorite questions: The largest Mars meteorite ever found on Earth that was just sold at Sotheby’s for a record price of more than $5 million is facing provenance issues after the government of Niger is investigating whether the meteorite was illegally smuggled out of its country.

🏢 Industrial vacancy hits 12-year high: The U.S. vacancy rate for industrial properties hit 7.3% in Q2, up 89 basis points year-over-year and the highest mark since 2013, as the amount of new supply on the market is overwhelming the still positive net absorption rate.

💵 Corporate defaults rising: Ratings agency Fitch reported that the default rate of corporate issuers of private credit rose to 5.5% in Q2 from 4.5% in Q1.

🪙 Do Kwon pleads guilty: The founder of Terraform Labs, whose collapse in 2022 led to $40 billion in losses, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges and could face up to 25 years in federal prison.

🏀 Cooper Flagg record: The NBA’s most recent #1 overall pick and Dallas Mavericks rookie had his Summer League debut jersey sell for $95,250, an all-time record for any Summer League jersey, showing the level of hype for Flagg’s market already.

In a week where a number of altcoins saw significant gains, the token with the biggest drop of any in the top-100 by market cap was the security-based cryptocurrency Monero, as it was reportedly the victim of a 51% attack. In a 51% attack, a group gains control of over more than half of a blockchain’s mining hash rate, essentially giving it full control over the blockchain’s transactions. The attackers can prevent new transactions from gaining confirmations, halt payments, and grant all mining rewards to themselves. This attack was undertaken by the layer-1 blockchain Qubic, whose mining operations merge mine Monero — that is they can act as minors on both networks simultaneously — and which has apparently been working on this for more than a month. There is some dispute as to whether the attack has actually been successful and how durable the takeover is, but for now, Monero’s price is dropping and its future is in jeopardy.