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:
- Crypto: SEC chair says most crypto tokens are not securities, wants clarify for onchain fundraising
- Startups & VC: Former unicorn Hike goes bust after regulators target its gaming and fantasy sports pivot
- Private Equity & Private Credit: Secondaries are propping up both private equity and private credit markets
- Sports: Unrivaled raises $340 million at Series B to expand its athlete-owned media empire
- Collectibles, Culture and Luxury: Tiny Vinyl debuts designed specifically for the streaming era
- Music & Film: The Smiths’ catalog share is up for sale
- Artwork: Christie’s shutters NFT department
- 🇰🇿 International Investing: 🇭🇰 Shein returns to China so they can IPO in Hong Kong
- Real Estate: Self-storage development slows
- Precious Metals and Gems: Major copper merger reshapes the sector
- Farmland: US peanut exports to China surge
- Wine, Whiskey & Spirits: Trump tariff plan aims to boost US bourbon whiskey
Let’s go
Table of Contents
International Investing
Around the world…
- 🇭🇰 Shein returns to China so they can IPO in Hong Kong
- 🇮🇳 India explores a rare earths deal with Myanmar rebels
- 🇬🇧 Britain is losing about one pub per day
- 🇧🇷 Brazil jails Bolsonaro, moves forward with bold infrastructure push
Crypto
- SEC chair says most crypto tokens are not securities, wants clarify for onchain fundraising
- Nasdaq wants SEC approval to list tokenized securities.
- Chainalysis ranks India as the top crypto adopter
- Dogecoin ETF goes live.
- CoinShares’ Bitcoin mining ETF hit record highs.
- Crypto VCs bounce back with vengeance.
- Moscow warns of US debt being buried via crypto.
What do you think?
The idea of dumping debt into crypto is a fascinating concept.
Take your obligations, wrap them in tokens or smart contracts, and poof — they’re somewhere else.
Reminds me of the ”Trillion Dollar Coin” meme meme from the debt ceiling days. Same debt erosion goal by a different mechanic. #MintTheCoin #YesWeCoin
Startups & VC
- Former unicorn Hike goes bust after regulators target its gaming and fantasy sports pivot
- After a sluggish summer, VC funding rebounded in August
- Wealth platform Allocate raises $30.5m to connect RIAs with top VC + PE funds
- Quantum computing firm PsiQuantum hits $7 billion valuation after latest funding round
“Unauthorized” SPVs are pissing off AI startups
There’s a clash brewing at the intersection of AI giants and SPVs.
OpenAI put out a warning to investors about “unauthorized” vehicles claiming access to its stock, stressing that these structures aren’t sanctioned.
Anthropic is going even further, moving to shut down unofficial SPVs as demand for its equity surges on secondary markets. Anthropic even told Menlo Ventures it must use its own capital — not an SPV — to participate in an upcoming round.
Private Equity & Private Credit
- Secondaries are propping up both private equity and private credit markets
- Vimeo acquired for $1.38b by Bending Spoons in a rare private equity content play
- iCapital launches private fund stake marketplace
- Private credit shifts into riskier energy equity as funds chase higher returns
- Apollo warns of a washout that could wipe out weaker PE firms
- Morningstar’s hybrid index blends public and private assets
Sports
- Unrivaled raises $340 million at Series B to expand its athlete-owned media empire
- Apollo to launch $5b sports investment fund as private capital floods into leagues, teams, and IP
- Tottenham Hotspur rejects takeover talks, insists club is absolutely not for sale
- Illegal sports streaming giant StreamEast gets shut down
- Americans see no difference between prediction markets and gambling
Prediction markets and sports betting have collided
The intersection of prediction markets and sports betting is getting wild.
Over the past week there have been some major land grabs in both worlds. It’s all happening at once, and the legal fog is getting thick.
TL;DR – Prediction markets want in on sports betting, and sports betting wants in on prediction markets. Everyone wants to be everything.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s going on.
Collectibles, Culture and Luxury 🧸
- Tiny Vinyl debuts designed specifically for the streaming era
- Darth Vader’s lightsaber sells for six figures at Star Wars auction
- Blaise Pascal’s calculating machine heads to auction
- Lego’s most expensive Star Wars set yet.
Learn more
Alts community member Omar Khokhar wondered: What if cricket had a proper trading card market?
Two years later, Omar’s idea has become a very real, high-quality business.
This is the story of how Omar teamed up with a friend to build a cricket trading card company from scratch.
Music & Film
- The Smiths’ catalog share reportedly up for sale, Morrissey cashes out
- Americana fans stream and spend more
- OpenAI partners with a major studio on AI animated film: Critterz.
- Here’s what an AI music license might look like — and why it’s legally messy
How Netflix drank Sony’s Milkshake
Last week I sat down with comic creator and IP strategist Kayden Phoenix, who explained what Sony gave up, what they could’ve done differently, and how she built her own Latina superhero universe.
Real Estate
- US office market outlook remains grim, with vacancy rates stuck near all-time highs
- Self-storage development slows
- QSR chains flood the market with new builds, especially drive-thrus — even as visits per location decline
Artwork
- Christie’s shutters NFT department
- London’s National Gallery lands record-breaking donations to expand — and start collecting contemporary art
- NeueHouse files for bankruptcy, shutting several high-design co-working spaces tied to the creative world
- A scrubbed Banksy mural leaves behind a ghostly shadow — and goes even more viral
Art’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad summer
It’s been a rough summer for the art market. But as Nicho, our art investing partner, explains, the truth is more complicated.
From private transactions behind the scenes to September’s stacked sales calendar, there are plenty of signals to watch.
Wyatt unpacks what has driven the downturn, why wealthy collectors are going quiet, and which upcoming auctions matter.
Precious Metals and Gems
- Major copper merger reshapes the sector, as consolidation hits global supply chains
- Gold hits new all-time highs, driven by central bank demand and currency volatility
Farmland
- Peanut exports to China surge, boosting U.S. growers
- Methane reduction projects in LatAm and Africa use satellite tech to target emissions from livestock and rice farming
- Tariffs bite U.S. farmers, with lawmakers warning of rising costs and export slowdowns
Wine, Whiskey & Spirits
- Trump tariff plan aims to boost US bourbon whiskey, but could provoke European retaliation
That’s all for this week.
See you next time, Stefan
Disclosures
- This issue was sponsored by Fenchurch Legal
- This issue contains no affiliate links
