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Welcome to The Water Cooler for April 6, 2022 – FIRST Edition!
Firstly, a quick intro to The WC is in order.
This is the newest addition to the Alts.co newsletter stable. It’s a random mix of stuff that could make you smarter, or at least help you sound smarter down at the pub. Anything useful / interesting / notable that’s on my mind will get pumped into your inbox every Wednesday.
Let’s go!
Crypto isn’t good or evil… It just is.
The war in Ukraine is accelerating crypto adoption in ways no one imagined just a few months ago, and it’s happening on both sides of the conflict.
Ukraine has received over $130m in donations worldwide, and those have paid for 5,500 bulletproof vests, 500 helmets, night-vision goggles, and medicine.
Meanwhile, Russia has started accepting bitcoin as payment for both oil and gas to help it avoid sanctions.
People like to hear from CEOs.
As part of the marketing campaign we’re doing for our ALTS 1 Fund (click here!), we ran a little test to see who our investors want to hear from more: the pretty-boy CEO (Stefan) or the slightly less-charismatic fund manager (me).
After sending the two emails, it was a pretty close call, but Stefan ended up as the winner with a 13% higher Click Rate than myself… I might be slightly heartbroken, guys.
Speaking of Style over Substance…
Yahoo Finance has launched an alts index (Total Collectables ^CLCTBLS.REGA). Does it look familiar to you? It does to me.
People say imitation is the best form of blah blah blah – we’ve had this space covered since June 2021:
Launched exclusively to Insiders last week, we’re pleased to announce the Fractional Index
— Alts (@AltAssetsClub) June 14, 2021
Comprising ALL assets across the major fractional platforms, it tracks performance since inception@OnRallyRd @CollectableApp @withotis
Download it for free. https://t.co/rbSUr2K0JM pic.twitter.com/try2TKPRyG
Glad to see our space getting some institutional support, but it’s a shame they sort of botched it:
- It only lists two fractional trading platforms: Rally and Collectable.
- Their allocation is 70% sports cards and memorabilia. There are already a number of sports cards indices out there.
Maybe they can improve in time.
NFTs *literally* going to the moon.
I was speaking with Nicho (our art specialist) last week, and he told me about an NFT project by Jeff Koons called Moonphases.
Koons is known for: A.) creating those balloon dog sculptures we see everywhere, and B.) selling one for $91m in 2019.
He’s legit blue-chip and is the world’s most expensive living artist.
Koons is creating some sculptures and sending them to the moon. The corresponding NFTs will be auctioned off, some in support of Doctors Without Borders.
Koons is the second living blue-chip artist to create an NFT project (Damien Hirst was the first), and this project is another fantastic crossover to help bring traditional art people into the NFT world.
Keep an eye on this one.
We bought our first thing!
As you may have heard, we launched the ALTS 1 fund last week, and we’re not sitting on our hands – we’ve already acquired our first asset – a 1978 Kenner 12 Darth Vader action figure graded 85 by AFA.
That’s a lot of jargon to say it’s a super early release with a fantastic pedigree, and we’re mega bullish on it.
We got a fantastic price and expect to hold it for a couple of years (at least). Collectible action figures are up over 100% in the last year, and I think they may have 10x to run still.
🚨 BUYOUT RESULTS: DARTH VADER
— Otis (@withotis) April 1, 2022
Since we first announced the offer, there was a higher buyout offer of $25,420 submitted.
Based on this higher offer, 52.5% of share votes elected to approve the offer, and the offer has been accepted. pic.twitter.com/l9M5yvNMor
What did you think of this (and is the new banner thing we’re trying out working)? Love it, hate it?
Lastly, have you read something this week that’s made you smarter? Let me know. I might even give you a shout out next week.
Cheers, Wyatt
