Hello and welcome to Alts Cafe
I’m keeping things brief with this week’s Alts Cafe as I’m away celebrating my ten year anniversary.
TLDR:
- S&P and NASDAQ are up
- BTC was down for the first time this year, as people took money off the table
- Money is flowing into India-based startups (KRR invested $250 million into an India-based decarbonisation platform)
Caffeine up and let’s go, Alts fans.
Wyatt
Macro View
It was a quiet week overall, which lifted equities and squashed volatility.
Bullish News
- The Eurozone grew slightly in Q1.
- The Dow had its best month since January.
- U.S. job openings fell for a third straight month in March, and layoffs increased to the highest level in more than two years.
Bearish News
- First Republic became the second-largest bank failure ever.
What are we doing?
ALTS 1 fund news:
No news here.
Real Estate
Bullish News
- The largest undeveloped waterfront parcel in downtown Miami was sold to a local real estate owner for roughly $1.2 billion.
Bearish News
- Short sellers have ramped up bets against commercial mortgage REITs.
- The annual spring home selling boom hasn’t materialised this year.
- Citi publicly admitted what we all already know – offices are dead.
- Blackstone limited REIT investor redemptions again in April.
- UK housing inventory is way up.
How to invest in real estate right now:
I’m still out of the real estate market [no change].
Crypto & NFTs
Here’s what you need to know:
Bitcoin showed its first weekly loss in 2023 as investors consolidated gains.
Sentiment dipped slightly along with prices.
NFTs actually outpaced crypto for the first week since January.
Bullish News
- Mastercard is expanding further into crypto.
- Coinbase is opening a derivatives exchange in Bermuda as part of an international expansion plan.
Bearish News
- Coinbase execs and VCs have been accused of dumping $1 billion in shares before the stock tanked.
- Crypto exchange Polinex agreed to a $7.6 million fee to settle accusations of violating SEC rules.
- The SEC fined Seattle-based Coinme and related defendants nearly $4 million for conducting an unregistered and misleading offering of a crypto asset called UpToken.
- The White House is pushing a 30% tax on crypto mining.
How to invest in Crypto & NFTs right now:
Keep it simple and clean. Avoid anything risky and stick with top-tier coins.
We’ve talked about Roots before, a REG A REIT that allows anyone to build wealth through real estate.
Their asset class is single-family, and they have a unique model where residents of the properties can get invested into the fund through a security deposit, and earn quarterly rebates for taking care of the properties and being good neighbors. It’s a win-win.
Best of all, I’m delighted to say they’re up 16% in the last 12 months. Super impressive.
We’ve been working closely with these guys, and one of the co-founders has opened up his calendar to Alts readers so you can schedule a 1:1 call. It’s a great opportunity to ask questions and get a feel for what they’re doing.
Book a call today.
Startups
Bullish News
- META raised $8.5 billion via a debt offering at less than 2% above treasuries.
- American PE giant KKR invested $250 million in Serentica Renewables, an Indian decarbonisation platform.
- OpenAI raised $300 million at a $27 billion valuation.
- IBM says they’ll replace jobs with AI.
Bearish News
- Lyft is bringing employees back to the office as it tries to shore up flagging results.
- The backlash against AI as an investment opportunity has reached the mainstream.
How to invest in startups right now:
Have a look at India. It just passed China as the world’s most populous country, and institutional capital is flowing in.
That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed your coffee and this edition of Alts Cafe.
Fans of what we do here? Please send this email to five friends. We appreciate it.
Cheers,
Wyatt
Disclosures
- This issue of Alts Cafe was brought to you by our friends at sliceNote and Roots
- We are holding BTC and ETC in our ALTS 1 Fund. Apart from those, we don’t own any other assets or vested interests in the companies mentioned in this email.