Hello and welcome to Alts Cafe
This is everything you need to stay up to date in alternatives.
Issue highlights:
- Luxury Goods: Thieves stole $300,000 in luxury goods from NFL star Joe Burrow’s Ohio home.
- Classic Cars: Thieves stole three luxury cars from Miami athletes Carson Beck and Hanna Cavinder, including a Lamborghini.
- Wine Paris 2025 set records with 52k visitors. Want to go to France?
- Artwork: Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus will auction a rare Banksy
- Crypto: Hackers stole $1.5 billion from Bybit
- Film & Music: HarbourView Equity Partners acquired T-Pain’s catalog
- Websites: Commerce.com sold for $2.2 million
Let’s go.
Wyatt
Table of Contents
Macro View
Bullish news
- Australian real estate auction clearance rates hit 71.2%, their highest since September 2024, with Sydney reaching 76.6%.
Bearish news
- US consumer sentiment plunged 10% in February, with inflation expectations surging to 4.3%.
- US core CPI jumped 5.5%, with a former treasury secretary calling this the “riskiest period” for inflation policy.
Wine, Whiskey & Spirits
Bullish news
- Wine Paris 2025 set records with 52,622 visitors, 45% from 154 countries..
- Antinori acquired Napa Valley’s Arcadia Vineyard, reuniting it with Stag’s Leap.
Bearish news
- Investors sued Constellation Brands over alleged misleading statements about wine & spirits growth
- New Mexico proposed a 6% alcohol tax, cutting general fund revenue by $24.7 million.
- South Carolina bars and restaurants shut down over soaring liquor liability insurance.
🔥 Invest in fine wine
We have a new fine wine deal in Altea:
Deeper analysis on this deal is coming later this week.
In the meantime, you can join Altea to access the deal.
Let’s go to France?
We are considering an Alts trip to France. This will be a wine-themed investing adventure through Burgundy, Champagne, and Provence.
Farmland
Bullish news
- USDA allocated $20 million for conservation programs and farm contracts.
- UNR developed drought-resistant sorghum needing 30% less water than corn.
Bearish news
- Trump’s funding freeze left $358 million in unpaid farm conservation contracts.
- North Carolina lawmakers proposed $475 million in subsidies after statewide disaster declarations.
- UK hill farmers reported falling incomes with stagnant Stewardship payments for decades.
💬 Join the Discussion
The Food Institute claims the vertical farming market will 4x over the next 5 years. But I don’t see how that’s possible.
Brian researched this market last year and found that funding had essentially dried up in the face of poor unit economics…
What do you think?
Private Equity & Private Credit
Bullish News
- CapitaLand Investment closed its first South Korean private credit fund at KRW 180 billion ($169.2 million).
- The mezzanine finance market is projected to double from $212.58 million in 2025 to $420.79 million by 2032.
Bearish News
- California introduced legislation limiting PE control over medical practices.
- The private credit market faces heightened Fed scrutiny as banks have extended $300 billion to private capital firms.
💬 Join the Discussion:
Limiting PE ownership of healthcare companies seems reasonable.
What do you think?
What do you think?
Startups
Bullish news
- Rocket Lab successfully launched a Gen-3 satellite for AI-powered Earth imaging.
Bearish news
- Insight Partners suffered a data breach from a social engineering attack.
- Chime’s app went down with over 2,500 outage reports, blocking users from accessing funds.
- Roblox and Discord faced lawsuits over child exploitation.
- GitLab’s stock plunged 21% to $58.84 after weak growth projections and three lawsuits.
Artwork
Bullish news
- Multiple galleries sold out at Frieze LA, including David Kordansky’s booth with works priced from $8,000 to $80,000.
- Christie’s secured Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio’s $250 million collection.
- Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus will auction a rare Banksy at Sotheby’s London with a £5 million estimate to support fire relief.
Bearish news
- Italian police seized 71 fake artworks from a secret Rome workshop.
- Former Sarkozy aide Claude Guéant was accused of hiding a €500,000 Gaddafi bribe through fraudulent art sales.
- Three in five small UK museums fear closure, with 78% reporting their toughest period ever.
Classic Cars
Bullish news
- A rare 911 S/T raised $1 million for the American Red Cross, with Orlando Bloom backing the charity auction.
Bearish news
- Thieves stole three luxury cars from Miami athletes Carson Beck and Hanna Cavinder, including a Lamborghini.
- Ontario police seized over 200 classic cars from buyers after discovering they were stolen.
🔥 Invest in Classic Cars
The Ferrari Collection (CLOSING SOON)
Rare Coins
Bullish news
- The 1894-S Barber Dime, one of 24 ever minted, remains among the most valuable US coins.
Bearish news
- A Cambridgeshire rare coin dealer lost £40,000 in currency thefts across two break-ins within 24 hours.
💬 Join the Discussion
The penny’s luck is running out. Are nickels next?
What do you think?
What do you think?
Luxury Goods
Bullish news
- Rolex dominated the secondary market, making up 36% of Bezel’s sales, double the next highest brand.
- A Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 could become the most expensive non-charity watch sale, expected to top $20 million.
Bearish news
- Thieves stole $300,000 in luxury goods from NFL star Joe Burrow’s $7.5 million Ohio home.
- Richemont sued Silversmiths for selling counterfeit Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry after ignored cease-and-desist letters.
- Gen Z’s “No Buy 2025” movement surged, with an anti-consumption creator hitting 2.6 million views.
Music and Film
Bullish news
- HarbourView Equity Partners acquired T-Pain’s catalog, expanding its 50 million-song portfolio.
Bearish news
- Record labels forced Altice to reveal 100 subscribers’ data over piracy accusations.
- Warner Bros. pulled out of a major Las Vegas film studio project.
- Chlöe Bailey and Columbia Records face a $5 million lawsuit per song for alleged copyright infringement.
- SeatGeek was sued in New York for hiding processing fees from ticket buyers.
Crypto
Bullish news
- Catizen’s Web3 gaming platform attracted 55 million players and generated $34 million in revenue in its first 10 months.
Bearish news
- Hackers stole $1.5 billion from Bybit’s cold wallet in crypto’s largest theft to date.
- Nigeria filed an $81.5 billion lawsuit against Binance for economic damages and unpaid taxes.
- SafeMoon’s CTO pleaded guilty to fraud charges in a $200 million crypto scheme.
Real Estate
Bullish news
- Multifamily REITs reported strong tenant retention as renting remains more affordable than home ownership.
- Massachusetts plans to allow multifamily housing statewide, permitting up to four units on lots with municipal water and sewer access.
Bearish news
- A Louisiana court ordered a new trial in a museum’s hotel tax break case, threatening similar tax incentives.
- Wildfires in Paradise, CA, led to a 37% insurance hike, a 69% population drop, and a 42% decline in property values over five years.
💬 Join the Discussion
Private firefighting insurance may seem like a modern, “late stage capitalism” concept, but its roots stretch back thousands of years.
What do you think?
Metals and Gems
Bullish news
- The US awarded IperionX a $47.1 million contract to boost domestic titanium production.
- Torr Metals discovered a 3.3-km gold trend at Filion, with samples reaching 91.4 g/t gold.
- The Smithsonian acquired the 2.33-carat Winston Red Diamond.
- GreenIron tapped ABB to automate its first commercial facility, cutting CO2 emissions by 56,000 tonnes per furnace.
Bearish news
- Fortescue Metals Group reported a decline in half-year profits.
- Thieves stole $12.3 million in jewelry from Hyde Park Jewelers in Denver using power tools.
- Two men were arrested for scrap metal theft in Pine Bluff, one with prior felonies.
Collectibles
Bullish news
- A 1952 Mickey Mantle card sold for $2.88 million, the second-highest baseball card sale ever.
- Pokémon card values jumped 20% in six months, with some rising as much as 150%.
Bearish news
- Customs agents seized $1.4 million in counterfeit sports memorabilia at the Port of Cincinnati.
- A woman posing as a UPS driver was arrested for stealing vintage collectibles.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer sued a company for unauthorized sales of Eagles Super Bowl memorabilia.
- A thief stole $3,000 worth of trading cards from a Meijer store in Brimfield, Ohio.
Websites and Domains
Bullish News
- Commerce.com sold for $2.2 million, marking 2025’s first seven-figure domain sale.
Bearish News
- 158 fake IRS domains were registered in January, with 3,500+ malicious tax-themed domains detected.
- Google Ads removed parked domains from default placements, cutting investor revenue.
- Liverpool FC lost its cybersquatting case against LiverpoolFCTickets.com.
That’s all for this week
Cheers,
Wyatt
Disclosures
- We hold BTC and ETH in our ALTS 1 Fund.
- This issue was brought to you by our friends at CapitalPad.
- There are a couple of affiliate links above. If you click them, we may get a couple of bucks.
