*as of 8/4; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

In the last twelve months, $120 billion of Pre-IPO secondaries were traded, an all-time record, as investors targeted shares of companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic before they hit public markets. An estimated 85% of all volume went to the top twenty Pre-IPO companies, with around half going to the top five. Nearly all transaction volume has gone to startups that are more than six years old, and more than half has gone to companies valued at $20 billion or more. Pitchbook named its next top-10 Pre-IPO companies, and estimated Stripe, Kraken, and Discord to be the most likely to go public within the next three years — with each having more than a 50% chance of going public within the next five.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The Pre-IPO market has skyrocketed in the past few years, though SpaceX’s underwhelming IPO has raised some questions about whether the momentum can continue through OpenAI and Anthropic’s anticipated IPOs. Yesterday’s investor briefing looked at the future of the market and discussed a number of major startups that could go public in the next year.

📈 Equity record-highs: Both the S&P 500 and the Dow rose more than 1.7% yesterday to close at record-highs, as AI-related stocks continued their hot week and crude oil prices declined amid higher hopes for an end to the Iran War.

🏡 Home price projections: Zillow is now projecting flat national home price growth over the next year, with prices rising 1.1% in the previous twelve months. This growth is below both the rate of inflation and average national wage expansion, so housing figures to become relatively more affordable. Rockford, IL projects as the top market for value appreciation, with Austin, TX predicted to see the largest annual price decline.

🚀 Base Power fundraise: The clean energy battery startup raised $1 billion at a $13 billion valuation, more than triple its valuation from last year. This haul marks yet another massive raise and valuation increase for energy-related startups, as electricity demand spikes due in part to the rise of AI.

🪙 Senators call to investigate Trumpcoin: Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal are calling on the SEC to investigate President Trump’s memecoin after its value fell 97% from its peak. An estimated one million retail buyers lost billions of dollars, while Trump and his family have earned more than a billion in crypto-related ventures.

🏡 Top luxury neighborhoods: Park Slope in Brooklyn is the top luxury housing neighborhood for 2026, based on homebuyer demand metrics and how much competition buyers face. It is followed by Highland Park, IL and Overland Park, KS.

👗 Whitney Houston auction: A number of the legendary singer’s dresses worn to awards shows will be among the personal items up for sale at Julien's Auctions next week to benefit the Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation.

The top performer last week of any coin in the top-50 by market cap was Cardano, which has otherwise had a difficult past year, seeing its value drop by 74% even after the recent surge. The proof-of-stake blockchain platform was the #3 overall cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2021, but has struggled to remain consistently relevant since then. The recent positive price movement is due to investor optimism surrounding major upcoming protocol upgrades, but often these types of spikes peter out and the price returns to where it was before.