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- January 26th - This Week in Alternative Investments
January 26th - This Week in Alternative Investments
Adam Katz
January 26, 2024
This issue is brought to you by 10 East, where sophisticated investors access private markets.
Headlines
Bite-sized market updates
Klimt’s “lost” final portrait could sell for over $50 million
GameStop is shuttering its NFT marketplace
Regenerative agriculture could be the future of farmland
VCs are also excited about energy storage
Plus: The coolest luxury brands of 2023, a pastor’s crypto scam, the Whitney Biennial, and more.
Performance
Bitcoin | Rare Whiskey Apex 1000 Index |
Thomson-Reuters VC Index | Zillow Home Value Index |
Partner
Public Company Opportunities Have Evaporated
Back in 1996, there were over 8,000 public companies trading on American stock exchanges. Fast forward to today, and that number has collapsed to fewer than 3,750.
The end result?
Many of the strongest investment opportunities lie in private markets.
10 East, led by Michael Leffell, allows qualified individuals to invest alongside private market veterans in vetted deals across private credit, real estate, niche venture/private equity, and other one-off investments that aren’t typically available through traditional channels.
Benefits of 10 East membership include:
Flexibility – members have full discretion over whether to invest on an offering-by-offering basis.
Alignment – principals commit material personal capital to every offering.
Institutional resources – a dedicated investment team that sources and diligences each offering.
Smart Humans Podcast
In this episode, Slava Rubin talks with Fanatics Collectibles’ co-founder Josh Luber about investing into sports and culture.
Market Updates
Klimt’s “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser (1917)” © Auktionshaus im Kinsky GmbH, Vienna.
A newly rediscovered 1917 portrait by Gustav Klimt is being auctioned in April. The location of “Portrait for Fräulein Lieser” has been a mystery for nearly a hundred years, with a 1925 photograph the only proof of its existence. The painting, Klimt’s final portrait, remained partially unfinished upon his death in 1918, and disappeared from the public record shortly thereafter. The current owner’s family acquired the work in the 1960s, and while its movements before that are unknown, there is no evidence it was looted by the Nazis when they ruled Austria. The painting is expected to fetch between $32 and $55 million when it is auctioned in Vienna this spring.
Famed meme-stock company GameStop is shutting down its NFT marketplace. The marriage of two meme-fueled 2021 phenomena is coming to a somewhat predictable end next week, as the video game retailer had already removed support for its NFT wallet last November. It launched the platform in July 2022, a little late to fully capitalize on the NFT craze. The company cited the “continuing regulatory uncertainty of the crypto space” as the reason for its shutdown, but perhaps the fact that it only saw $40,000 of NFT trading volume in the last month was also a factor.
Regenerative agriculture continues to rise in popularity. Over the last three years, venture capital firms have invested $1.4 billion into startups in the space, a 46% increase compared to the previous three years. Regenerative agriculture focuses on enhancing farmland while utilizing it, by improving the topsoil quality, water cycle and biodiversity of the land, making agriculture more sustainable. It can benefit both investors in the land itself and in companies and operations that engage in the practice, particularly as governments look to “greener” solutions in the face of climate change.
Venture capital funding into energy storage companies in 2023 was the highest ever recorded. In total, $9.2 billion was raised in 86 deals, a 59% rise over the $5.8 billion raised in 2022, with lithium-ion battery companies leading the way. On the other hand, corporate funding in the sector declined by 28% in 2023, underscoring just how much relative growth the sector saw with VC funding. This, as with regenerative agriculture, is part of a larger trend towards cleantech investing, which could be poised to have a big 2024.
Learn
Research and insights from the Vincent team
Explore
More stories worth checking out
Asics was one of the hottest brands of 2023 (StockX)
Online cultural marketplace StockX released its annual report on the most desirable brands in luxury goods such as sneakers, accessories, collectibles, and electronics, highlighting the growth of Asics, Ugg, and Arc’teryx.
Existing-home sales hit a 28-year low, but pending sales saw their biggest increase in two years, a strong indication that the housing market is coming back to life.
A Colorado pastor who stole $1.3 million in a cryptocurrency scheme and is now facing securities fraud charges has said that God told him to do it, a defense that probably will not hold up in court.
Pre-IPO unicorn Flexport raised $260 million from Shopify at an undisclosed valuation - it was last valued at $8 billion two years ago but since then it has laid off 20% of its team and seen its revenue drop by 70%.
The prestigious Whitney Biennial, which showcases up-and-coming American artists, released its list of participating artists, a good primer on names art investors should know for the future.
Curious about private credit? Here’s a quick video primer on the multi-trillion dollar asset class.
Did you know that six-figure sports collectible auction sales dropped a eye-opening 45% in 2023? Check out Altan Insights’ year-end report on the sports collectibles market, for more in-depth research, data, and analysis.**
**Sponsored Link
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