January 5th - This Week in Alternative Investments

Author

Adam Katz
January 05, 2024


Headlines

Bite sized market updates

  • A set of Michael Jordan’s sneakers could sell for $10 million

  • The hottest real estate markets for 2024

  • The SEC’s Bitcoin ETF decision is looming

  • Female founders still struggle to get VC funding


Plus: X (Twitter) sees its value continue to drop, homebuying demand is up, Solana NFTs, and more.

Indices

Bitcoin
$44,407 (+$1,865)
Thomson-Reuters VC Index
14,972.41 (-1,030.41)

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Smart Humans Podcast

In this episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with 8VC's Joe Lonsdale about spotting unicorns early and the importance of diversifying into alternative investments.

The “Dynasty Collection” of Michael Jordan game-worn sneakers (Sotheby’s)

Market Updates

The “Dynasty Collection” of Michael Jordan sneakers is coming to Sotheby’s. The collection, which contains one signed, game-worn sneaker from the clinching game of each of Jordan’s six NBA championships, was up for private sale last year. Now it is heading to the auction block on February 2nd and carries an estimated price tag of $7 million - $10 million and has already received an irrevocable pre-auction bid. According to the auction house, it is “the most valuable and significant collection of Air Jordan sneakers ever brought to market”.

Buffalo, New York, leads Zillow’s list of the hottest housing markets for 2024. The list looked at the 50 biggest U.S. metro areas and is based on metrics such as the days a listing stays on market, projected home appreciation and projected job growth - the latter metric being the one that pushed Buffalo to the top spot. It is followed by Cincinnati, Ohio and Columbus, Ohio, as more affordable markets in the Great Lakes and Midwest dominated the rankings. Last year’s #1 market, Charlotte, dropped to 7th, while San Antonio took the biggest drop, from 13th all the way to 49th.

The SEC is expected to rule soon on the legality of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF). Facing a January 10th deadline, the regulator is deciding whether to allow money managers to offer ETFs to the public, allowing easier access for mainstream investors to the cryptocurrency. The price of Bitcoin has fluctuated in the past week based on rumors of approval or disapproval, as the market is split on the SEC’s expected action. Because of this, the potential for approval may not be entirely priced in, and could be a catalyst for further gains if it happens.

According to Pitchbook, companies solely founded by females saw only 2.0% of all venture capital funding in 2023. This was a slight decline from the 2.1% number in 2022, though the overall share of deals for those companies rose to 7.0% from 6.7%. The results for mixed-gender founding teams was more promising, as they captured 20.7% of all funding, compared to 16.7% a year ago. Still, when all-male founder teams raise nearly 40 times the amount of all-female founder teams, it is clear that venture has a long way to go to diversify its ranks.

Learn

Research and Insights from the Vincent team

What To Look For When Investing In Sports Cards

There is no substitute for experience and the more cards you see and evaluate and the more sales data you read, the more comfortable you will be in pricing cards.

Explore

Twitter 3d Icon Concept. Dark Mode Style 🖤

The company was worth a lot more when it was still called Twitter

  • Fidelity marked down the value of its shares in X Holdings (Twitter), and it now sits at $12.5 billion, 71.5% lower than when Elon Musk took the company private.

  • As mortgage rates have gone down, early-stage homebuying demand rose 10% in the last month, a good sign that the housing market is picking up steam.

  • The monthly sales volume of NFTs on the Solana network exceeded those on the Ethereum network for the first time, and were the highest since October 2021, a strong sign for the value of the Solana token.

  • With a lull in the major art auction schedule, here are the top 10 sales of 2023, led by two paintings that fetched over $100 million.

  • New crypto tax rules took effect on January 1st, including the requirement that many transactions worth over $10,000 must be reported to the IRS, which could be difficult for many brokers and traders to comply with accurately.

  • HBO’s Succession may have ended it’s acclaimed 4-season run last year, but now you can bid on some of its props, including that ludicrously capacious handbag.

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