READ TIME: ±4 minutes
Hello and Welcome to Alts Cafe for May 19th, 2022.
This is everything you need to know about what’s going on in the world of alternative assets.
Best enjoyed with your morning cup of coffee.
Let’s go!
Pulse check: What’s the overall market doing?
Markets rebounded (and calmed slightly) this week as Chairman Powell downplayed talk of super-aggressive rate hikes.
What are we doing?
Fractional Alts picks
Two weeks ago (we skipped the update last week, our apologies), we put a “BUY” view on the Ovechkin jersey dropping on Collectable @ $10/sh.
ALTS 1 fund news
Last week, ALTS 1 acquired one new asset – Grateful Dead 1967 Translucent Headshop Poster (AOR-2.190) @ $10,500 (value $14k)
[We’re sharing the ALTS 1 acquisition info until the collection closes. After that, only investors will get these updates]
Crypto
Here’s what you need to know:
The overall crypto market seems to have stabilized after shedding 40% of its nearly $2T market cap in just a couple of weeks.
Bullish News
- Cathie Woods, the polarising CEO of Ark Invest, is buying up shares of CoinBase after the stock’s recent decline. (BBG)
- Robinhood launched a DeFi wallet in an attempt to take market share from Metamask (TBC)
- El Salvador hosted 44 delegates from other countries to discuss cryptocurrencies on May 16th. (MR)
Bearish News
- Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, dropped below its dollar peg on May 12th. Tether fell to 95 cents in the wake terraUSD’s decline to 30 cents on May 11th. (CNBC)
- TerraUSD has sort of stabilized around 7 cents as of this morning, though there’s a lot of downward pressure. (CG)
- Gas prices for Ethereum doubled in the midst of the stablecoin crisis. (D)
- Terraform’s in-house legal team resigned after the coin’s collapse. (TRM)
- El Salvador’s embrace of crypto has not gone well:
- “61% of citizens stopped using Chivo, the national crypto wallet, after withdrawing the $30 sign up incentive”
- The country has lost $30 million in it’s bitcoin investment
- Proving again that’s its only retail investors that get rekt, Pantera Capital cashed out 80% of its initial investment before TerraUSD’s collapse. (TB)
What to do with that info:
I’d be dollar cost averaging (DCA) into BTC and ETH now. You’re never going to get the exact top or bottom.
NFTs
Here’s what you need to know:
There are no major scandals this week in the world of NFTs, which is newsworthy in itself.
The price of the two largest cryptocurrencies used to transact NFTs, ETH and SOL, seem to have stabilized around $2,000 and $50, respectively, though the former seems to be moving downward.
The floor price for blue-chip PFP projects BAYC and CryptoPunks seem to have also stabilized, and their charts are starting to look eerily similar to each other.
Moonbirds is doing its own thing but also seems to have found a bottom and is ticking back up.
What to do with that info:
I sort of like the entry point for Moonbirds here. It’s a risk given the macroclimate, but the project is phenomenal.
Some projects to watch [via Mythia]:
- Gaming Ape Club: bullish sentiments for the long-term of this project come from a plethora of factors: partnerships, their vast online worlds, and an upcoming Supply Crate airdrop for holders. The team has continued to build and deliver on their roadmap. Floor has remained fairly stable since launch (current FP 0.11 ETH). They’re expected to hit 0.2+ over the coming months as they develop further.
- Cosa Monstra: There are very few details available about this upcoming project. However, what we do know is that Rugrats Co-Creator, Gabor Csupo, is the creator. Eyes are on this as it grows, currently, only about 5K followers on Twitter and no Discord yet.
Sports Cards
Here’s what you need to know:
The market continues to soften for sports cards, which is typical for spring, but it’s also part of an industry shift downward, I think.
Both PWCC and Goldin have premium auctions live right now, and all eyes are on the two competing Michael Jordan rookie cards.
PWCC’s is nicer from an eye-appeal point of view, and it’s currently $30k higher than the version at Goldin.
The major auction houses have been limiting consigners to one MJ rookie per auction in an attempt to keep the floor price healthy, and it’s mostly worked so far. We’ve not seen the card dip below $200k yet.
These two data points could have a lot to say about that.
What to do with that info:
The fractional platform Collectable is offering a Michael Jordan PSA 10 currently trading at $200k on the dot. Keep an eye on these auctions, and you could pick up a bargain.
Comics
Here’s what you need to know:
It’s an amazing couple of weeks for Spider-Man fans with four blue-chip copies of Amazing Fantasy #15 up at auction in May.
- Amazing Fantasy #15 CGC 8.0 at Comic Connect ($150k with 19 days to go)
- And also at Godlin ($384k with 2 days to go)
- A CGC 7.5 copy at ComicLink (bidding starts today)
- And a CGC 7.0 copy at Heritage. ($93k with 14 days to go)
FMV for the CGC 8.0 copies is around $490k, CGC 7.5 is $280k, and the CGC 7.0 copy is $210k, according to GoCollect.
The results here could tell us a lot about where the tier one blue-chip comics market is right now. I think the higher-graded copies will both break through $500k. We’ll check back in a few weeks from now.
Another week, another trailer!
This week, we’ve got She-Hulk (seriously) from Marvel. It’s a series premiering on Disney+ this summer.
It honestly looks awful. But you can see what the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has done for the comics relative to their DC Comics peers:
What to do with that info:
If you think She-Hulk is going to be awesome, you can pick up CGC graded 9.8 copies for around $1k. The population is 2,400, so there are a lot of them.
The price doesn’t seem to have ticked up yet on the news of the new series.
That’s all for this week. Hope you enjoyed your coffee and this edition of Alts Cafe.
Cheers,
Wyatt
