Hello and welcome to Alts Cafe:
The most important alternative investing stories each week, customized to your liking, best enjoyed over a cup of coffee.
Highlights:
- International Investing: In 2024, 76% of the world’s clean-tech factory investments happened in China.
- Precious Metals and Gems: The ocean floor gold rush is heating up. Trump greenlights deep sea mining, while a Canadian firm has applied to mine the sea floor through the US government
- Collectibles: Sports card marketplace Alt slapped PWCC with a lawsuit, alleging widespread shill bidding fraud in high-value card auctions.
- Crypto: President Trump appointed Paul Atkins as SEC Chairman
- Farmland: 80 Acres Farms broadened its reach by acquiring three indoor vertical farms
- Music & Film: Horror films are outperforming at the US box office this year.
- Artwork: A child damaged a Rothko painting worth $56 million.
- Real Estate: Home sales dropped 5.9% in March — the slowest March since 2009
Let’s go.
Table of Contents
International Investing
Around the world…
- 🇨🇳 Mainland China captured 76% of global clean-tech factory investment in 2024, far surpassing competitors.
- 🇰🇷 Seoul investors have been racing into Japanese real estate and other overseas markets as the Korean economy stagnates.
- 🇮🇳 During talks in Riyadh, India proposed a 10-year tax holiday to secure $100 billion in infrastructure capital.
- 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan attracted over $16 billion in foreign direct investment in 2024, with GDP growth projected at 4.9% for 2025.
Crypto
Bullish news
- President Trump appointed Paul Atkins as SEC Chairman. Surprising to nobody, Atkins is historically pro-crypto and anti-regulation.
- Abu Dhabi-based MGX will use President Trump’s World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin to close its $2 billion investment in Binance.
- MultiBank Group, MAG, and Mavryk signed a $3 billion RWA tokenization deal that will tokenize MAG’s luxury real estate projects.
Bearish news
- Britain barred consumers from borrowing pounds to buy crypto.
- FTX sued NFT Stars and blockchain gaming firm Kurosemi for failing to deliver tokens owed to the bankrupt exchange.
Investment opportunity
This week’s sponsor is Abundant Mines: an innovative company giving you access to your own personal Bitcoin mine.
You buy a machine, they host it in Oregon, run it, and maintain it, and you get paid out daily in Bitcoin.
We’ll be doing a deep dive on them soon.
In the meantime, founder Beau Turner is taking questions in the Alts Community:
Precious Metals and Gems
Bullish news
- US and Ukraine signed a critical minerals agreement
- Trump greenlights deep sea mining, while a Canadian firm has applied to mine the sea floor through the US government — bypassing the UN’s International Seabed Authority.
- Airbus just inked a $666m titanium deal with Saudi Arabia—its boldest move yet to wean off Russian metals.
Bearish news
- India’s diamond industry faces cuts from President Trump’s tariffs.
- China restricted exports of seven rare earth metals, controlling 70% of extraction and 90% of refining worldwide.
- Exports of terbium and dysprosium are facing restrictions, impacting the production of heat-resistant magnets.
Watch closely…
- Deep sea mining could reshape the entire supply chain for rare earth minerals, critical for EVs, smartphones, and clean energy tech.
- It’s a high-risk, high-reward industry with major environmental concerns — and now it’s moving from theoretical to real.
- Early-stage opportunities (and speculative risks) will explode in sectors like nickel, cobalt, manganese — metals crucial to the energy transition.
- Also politically significant: the US wants to catch up to China, which dominates rare earth mining.
Collectibles
Bullish news
- A 1961-62 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain rookie card graded SGC 9 (MINT) with pristine corners and vivid red background sold for $93,000.
Bearish news
- Sports card marketplace Alt slapped PWCC with a lawsuit, alleging widespread shill bidding fraud in high-value card auctions.
Discuss
Alt, the sports trading card investment platform, has filed a lawsuit against PWCC Marketplace, accusing the auction house of running a years-long shill bidding scheme to inflate sports card prices.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon, alleges PWCC employees and associates placed fake bids to drive up auction values, deceiving buyers — including Alt — into overpaying for cards.
Farmland
Bullish news
- Italy’s Planet Farms pledged over £25 million to build a new 20,000 square-meter vertical farming facility in the UK.
- 80 Acres Farms broadened its reach by acquiring three indoor vertical farms, previously owned by Kalera, across Georgia, Texas, and Colorado.
Bearish news
- Missouri threatened to seize Chinese-owned farmland.
- Japan’s rice prices surged 94% year-on-year through March 2025.
- The Farm Bill stalled with Republicans pushing to reduce SNAP funding by $230 billion over the next decade.
Music and Film
Bullish news
- Powered by Sinners, horror films are outperforming at the US box office this year.
- Big Loud secured a minority stake in Morgan Wallen‘s master recordings catalog to Chord Music Partners for over $200 million.
- The global electronic music industry hit $12.9B in 2024 — up 6% YoY
Bearish news
- Shaun Gray filed suit against Paramount, claiming he co-wrote key scenes for “Top Gun: Maverick” without compensation or credit.
Join the Discussion
In retaliation for Trump’s 125% tariffs on Chinese imports, China’s Film Administration is slashing the number of American movies allowed to screen in the country effective immediately.
But here’s the plot twist: US movies were already bombing at China’s box office.
Luxury Goods
Bullish news
- Hermès surpassed LVMH in market value, reaching 249 billion euros and becoming the most valuable company on France’s CAC40 index.
Bearish news
- Viral TikTok videos falsely claiming luxury goods are made in China went viral amid consumer skepticism about luxury pricing.
- Luxury watches from Rolex, Omega, Cartier, and Breitling are set to hike prices 3-5% beginning May 1.
- Insurance companies report that approximately 50% of luxury watch claims are fraud.
Artwork
Bullish News
- Entertainment mogul Ari Emanuel paid approximately $200 million to acquire Frieze.
Bearish News
- A child damaged a Rothko painting worth $56 million at Rotterdam’s Boijmans Van Beuningen museum, which remains under renovation until 2030.
- The $32 million sale of Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Fräulein Lieser fell through after unresolved Nazi-era provenance issues.
Startups & VC
Bullish news
- Persona raised $200 million in a Series D round led by Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital, doubling revenue and customer count in 2024.
- Protect AI agreed to be acquired by Palo Alto Networks in a deal worth over $500 million.
Bearish news
- Fashion startup CaaStle got hit with two lawsuits from partner P180 and supplier EXP Topco over fraud allegations.
Wine, Whiskey & Spirits
Bullish news
- The Macallan released a rare 46-year-old Tree of Life single malt with only 112 Lalique decanters available globally.
Bearish news
- Sister Scotch whisky cask investment firms Braeburn Whisky collapsed.
- LVMH’s Moët Hennessy reportedly planned to lay off 10% of its workforce, marking a major restructuring in the luxury spirits market.
Real Estate
Bullish news
- Dallas has emerged as the top real estate hotspot for 2025.
Bearish news
- Home sales dropped 5.9% in March — the slowest March since 2009
- Florida’s housing market is in a downturn, with 177,000 homes for sale and prices down 2.4% YoY.
- A Zillow report found 233 US cities where starter homes cost $1 million or more, up from 85 five years ago.
Classic Cars
Bullish news
- Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction drove $40 million in salesfrom 613 vehicles and hundreds of pieces of “automobilia.”
- Authorities recovered 43 stolen luxury cars worth $3.65 million from two Bronx parking garages.
Private Equity & Private Credit
Bullish News
- BMACX debuted as Blackstone’s first private multi-asset credit interval fund, unlocking access to the firm’s $465 billion credit platform.
Bearish News
- A national report flagged private equity firms’ purchase and bankruptcy of American nursing homes
That’s all we have!
Cheers,
Wyatt
Disclosures
- Altea has no holdings in any companies mentioned in this issue
- This issue was sponsored by Abundant Mines
- This issue contains no affiliate links
