Alternative Investing Report - August 29, 2025

*as of 8/28; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, 30YM

A Bitcoin mining company backed by Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump is planning a merger that will have its shares trading on the Nasdaq next month. According to the CEO of its largest shareholder, American Bitcoin is merging with the publicly traded Gryphon Digital Mining (Nasdaq: GRYP), which saw its shares jump 42% after the news was announced.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The Trump administration has been highly supportive of the crypto industry, and the Trump family has a vested interest in the success of digital assets, particularly Bitcoin and their own meme coins. Trump Media holds $2 billion in Bitcoin and just made a $6.4 billion deal with Crypto.com, World Liberty Financial has its own token with a $1.5 billion treasury, and Trumpcoin has a $1.7 billion market cap. With so many billions on the line, investors can expect crypto-friendly regulations and laws for the next few years. However, if the industry becomes so enmeshed with one family on one side of the political aisle, it creates the potential for downside when the current chapter is through.

In this episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin and Sacra's Marcelo Ballvé explore Stripe's business model, revenue streams, competitive landscape and future growth potential, including the impact of stablecoins and AI on its operations. The discussion also includes Christine Healey of HEALEY PRE-IPO who discusses investment opportunities in Stripe and the dynamics of accessing shares in the company.

Listings show the most homes for sale in the U.S. since July 2016, as inventory continues to pile up with more sellers than buyers, even with mortgage rates falling and prices remaining flat. There are now 20% more houses on the market that can be afforded by the median-income household compared to last year. Despite that, pending home sales fell July 0.4% in July, though they are up 0.7% year-over-year. Sellers are starting to delist their homes rather than cut prices, and buyers are still waiting on the sidelines.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The market has clearly been shifting towards buyers over the past year, particularly in the South and West, while the Northeast and Midwest are still favorable to sellers. Overall, there remain affordability issues, and 6.5% mortgage rates still lead to significant monthly payments. For now, there is still a chasm between the expectations of sellers and the expectations of buyers, and until that narrows, the market is going to stay in neutral.

🚀 ByteDance buyback: The startup that owns TikTok is offering its employees an opportunity to sell theirs shares back to the company at a $330 billion valuation, up 5.5% from its last buyback six months ago. The modest gain partially reflects caution over the possible TikTok ban in the U.S. that could lead to a forced sale of the social media platform’s U.S. assets.

🏀 $500K Caitlin Clark card: Another 1 of 1 Caitlin Clark signed rookie card sold for a significant amount, with the 2024 National Treasures Logowoman card fetching $504,000 at the August Fanatics Collect Premier auction, the 2nd highest sale ever for a women’s sports card.

🪙 Google Cloud developing blockchain: The tech giant announced that it is building its own blockchain for financial products, a move that could have major implications for the crypto space if other big tech companies follow in its footsteps.

🤖 Vercel triples valuation: The AI cloud-based platform raised several hundred million dollars at a $9 billion valuation, triple its $3 billion valuation from last year.

🎨 Sotheby’s in Abu Dhabi: The auction house will kick off Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week in early December with a series of marquee luxury sales with high-end art, jewelry, cars, watches and even real estate offered for sale.

💵 Credit continuation fund: Crescent Capital Group is aiming to raise $3 billion to move assets from a $4.6 billion 2017 vintage fund into a new continuation fund to hold those loans for longer.

Monday: 🏀 Sports card record, 🪙 ETH all-time high
Tuesday: 💵 Private equity struggles, ⚾ Sports card seasons
Wednesday: 🏡 Housing prices, 🪙 Solana treasury companies
Thursday: 🚀 Billion-dollar exits

Have a great holiday weekend!