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- July 19 - This Week in Alternative Investments
July 19 - This Week in Alternative Investments
Adam Katz
July 19, 2024
Brought to you by CaskX, where you can invest in award winning bourbon barrels
Headlines
A shocking Stegosaurus sale
Crypto’s big week
Sports’ most valuable women’s team
Anthropic is getting into venture
Plus: Google’s biggest deal yet, the state of sports collectibles, rents keep growing, and much more.
Performance
Bitcoin | Liv-Ex Fine Wine 1000 |
FTSE VC Index | Zillow Observed Rent Index |
*as of end of day July 18
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Market Updates
“Apex,” a nearly complete Stegosaurus skeleton, sold for $44.6 million at Sotheby’s. This price blew past the pre-auction estimate of $4-$6 million, and set a new record for the most expensive fossil ever sold at auction. The 27-foot long skeleton is considered to be the best specimen of its kind, and its rarity prompted a six-way bidding war. The winner was Ken Griffin, the billionaire hedge fund manager who previously spent $43.2 million on a copy of the U.S. Constitution. This shows again how true scarcity can lead to results that exceed expectations.
Bitcoin, Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies saw double-digit percentage gains this week. Some speculation in the space links the price growth to former President Trump’s odds of winning the election rising since last week’s assassination attempt. Trump is perceived as the friendlier candidate to crypto, hence the bullish sentiment on his ascent. That belief, along with the impending Ethereum ETF issuance and lessening Bitcoin sell pressure, has led the market to erase losses from two weeks ago. Whatever the true reason for the bullish turn, it is a reminder that the crypto markets are incredibly volatile, and timing them in the short-term is extremely difficult.
National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) franchise Angel City FC is now worth $250 million, the highest ever for any women’s sports team. Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, bought a controlling stake in the team from former Reddit CEO - and Serena Williams’ husband - Alexis Ohanian. Angel City, which also counts Natalie Portman, Billie Jean King and Lindsey Vonn as co-owners, generated the most revenue - estimated at $31 million - of any women’s team in the world last year. It also ranked first in the league in attendance and sponsorship revenue. The $250 million valuation more than doubles the previous high of $120 million for a NWSL franchise, which was set in March. The values of sports teams have been growing exponentially, and early investors in Angel City FC, which was just formed in 2020, have to be happy with this result.
AI startup Anthropic launched a $100 million AI venture fund. The OpenAI competitor teamed up with VC firm Menlo Ventures, who will provide the capital for the “Anthology Fund,” which aims to invest in the next generation of AI startups. Beyond the tangible benefit of funding, Anthropic is hoping its learnings from its own journey and ability to network with other AI companies will provide additional value to fledging startups in the space. The development follows OpenAI’s own $175 million venture fund, which was launched in 2021.
Smart Humans Podcast
In this episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Jason Calacanis about angel investing, the state of venture capital, traits of Unicorns and trusting the process.
Explore
More stories worth checking out
📝 Top Stories
Google’s $23 billion deal: The tech giant is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity firm Wiz for $23 billion, which would both be the largest deal Google has ever made, but would also be the largest acquisition ever of a venture-backed company.
Family offices and alts: There are more family offices than ever, and the vast majority are expecting their AUM to rise this year, which in turn is leading them to allocate more to alternative investments.
Biden’s rent cap proposal: The President unveiled a plan to cap rent growth at 5% per year for landlords who own more than 50 units, and though it is unlikely to ever become law, demonstrates the political appetite for fighting ever-rising housing costs.
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🎨 Art
Christie’s sales are down: The auction house saw $2.1 billion in auction sales during the first half of 2024, a 22% drop from 2023 and a 40% drop from 2022, underscoring the difficulties of the market over the past couple of years.
⚾ Collectibles
Sports collectibles report: Altan Insights’ Q2 research report looks at auction sales and market performance across multiple sports and categories, including cards, memorabilia, ticket stubs, photos and more.
Why whiskey?: This analysis looks at five reasons to invest in whiskey, including limited supply and increasing demand, diversifying your portfolio, and more.
A $15 million Ferrari: A 1955 Ferrari 410 S, raced by Carroll Shelby - played by Matt Damon in “Ford v. Ferrari” - will be auctioned next month at Monterey Car Week, and is expected to fetch in excess of $15 million.
🪙 Crypto
Ripple’s rally: In addition to riding the wave of the greater crypto market, a possible settlement with the SEC pushed Ripple’s price up nearly 25% this week after a slump caused its value to drop by nearly half over the past twelve months.
Grayscale and AI: The crypto asset manager launched a fund focused on decentralized AI that currently is invested into five assets: Bittensor (TAO), Filecoin (FIL), Livepeer (LPT), Near (NEAR), and Render (RNDR).
💵 Private Credit
Blue Owl purchase: The alternative asset manager paid $450 million for Atalaya Capital, a private credit manager with over $10 billion in AUM.
🏡 Real Estate
Rents keep growing: The typical rent in the U.S. in June was $2,054, a 0.5% increase over May and a 3.5% increase year-over-year, the highest growth rate since last July. The markets with the highest annual rent increases were Hartford, Cleveland, Louisville, Providence and Milwaukee.
Shopping for distressed assets: Private equity firms are expecting strong buying opportunities to emerge in the near future as more distressed office buildings start to hit the market.
Data centers are booming: Rental rates for U.S. data centers have surged 20% year-over-year, despite inventory growing 24.4% in Q1 as demand has skyrocketed, due in large part to the growing AI industry.
🚀 Venture Capital
Morgan Creek’s new fund: The multi-strategy firm announced plans to raise $500 million for a web3 fund that will focus on AI and blockchain technologies, and plans to invest globally.
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