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- March 22nd - This Week in Alternative Investments
March 22nd - This Week in Alternative Investments
Adam Katz
March 22, 2024
This issue is brought to you by Energy Shares, where you can tap into the rapidly growing solar market.
Headlines
Bite-sized market updates
The settlement shaking up the real estate market
Wonder’s $700 million funding round
Sotheby’s “Sports Week” is coming
Reddit’s IPO soars
The Fed keeps rates steady
Plus: The SEC and Ethereum, a $1.8 million comic, the Whitney Biennial, and more.
Performance
Bitcoin | WatchCharts Market Index |
Thomson-Reuters VC Index | Zillow Home Value Index |
Partner
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Market Updates
A settlement could shake up the residential real estate market. The National Association of Realtors agreed to pay $418 million over four years to settle an antitrust lawsuit related to realtors’ commissions. Experts project that the current 6% commission rate will be cut in half, potentially cutting housing prices by up to 3%, though sellers will keep more of the proceeds. However, buyers may have to start compensating their agents, which could particularly harm first-time buyers. A federal court still needs to approve the settlement, but either way, changes are coming to the way Americans buy and sell houses.
“Fast-Fine” food delivery startup Wonder raised a $700 million funding round. The number is a staggering figure for a non-AI startup, particularly in a difficult fundraising environment. The New York-based company is led by entrepreneur Marc Lore, who invested $100 million of his own money into the venture. Wonder specializes in hyper-local delivery and has 11 brick-and-mortar locations - all of which are profitable - and plans to expand to 90 locations in the Northeast by the end of 2025. It last raised funds on a $3.5 billion valuation, and while the valuation for this round has not been disclosed, it was rumored that they were seeking funds at a $4.5 - $5 billion valuation.
Auction house Sotheby’s is continuing its push into sports memorabilia. Its first “Sports Week” is coming up in April, with six separate auctions containing high profile items from Kobe Bryant, Muhammad Ali, and Michael Jordan, among others. Sotheby’s has seen “exponential growth” in demand for sports memorabilia, which comes largely from a younger demographic that is mostly new to auctions. As established auction houses continue to branch into collectibles, it can only help bring the asset class more credibility and exposure to the mainstream.
Reddit stock jumped by nearly 50% in its first day of trading. The social media giant had its long-anticipated IPO on Thursday, and despite setting the price on the high end of expectations at $34 per share, it ended the day trading at $50.44 per share. That was good news for Reddit, but bad news for the users who decided against participating in the IPO when given early access. Meanwhile, semiconductor company Astera Labs had its own IPO on Wednesday, and shares jumped over 70% above the offering price. The pre-IPO market, which has been waiting for high-profile, successful tech IPOs, could start seeing more activity as investors look for the next big companies to go public.
Smart Humans Podcast
In this episode, Slava Rubin talks with Uniswap's Mary-Catherine Lader about the future of DeFi and the impact of blockchain technology.
Explore
More stories worth checking out
This comic - Batman’s debut - sold for $1.8 million (ComicConnect)
The Federal Reserve elected to keep interest rates steady, but indicated that they still expect three rate cuts this year, which would be a benefit to many alternative asset classes that thrive in lower-interest rate environments.
The SEC is reportedly trying to label Ethereum as a security, a contradiction of a prior position that would complicate the future of Ethereum ETFs.
A 1939 copy of Detective Comics #27 - the first appearance of Batman - sold for $1.825 million, a slight gain over its last sale of $1.76 million two years ago.
Speaking of comic books, here’s a good primer of what to do (look at the back cover!) and not to do (avoid restored copies!) when collecting comic books.
As the Whitney Biennial begins, a list of what to look for and what to avoid at the influential New York art exhibition.
A pair of Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” which were missing for 13 years following a museum heist, are going to be displayed internationally before being auctioned in December.
A complete set of prints from legendary Japanese artist Hokusai’s “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji”, which includes the original thirty six and ten additional works, sold for $3.56 million at Christie’s - the last set to be auctioned fetched $1.5 million in 2002.
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Some of Hokusai’s “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” (Christie’s)
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