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: 🇦🇷 US announces ​full bailout for Argentina​ with bond purchases, swaps, and credit lines. Argentine assets ​rebound sharply​.
- Artwork: Billionaire investor Thomas Kaplan plans to ​fractionalize​ the world’s largest private Rembrandt collection
- Startups and VC: ​Do IPOs still matter?​ Alts experts weigh in.
- Precious Metals and Gems: Trump administration seeks ​equity stake in Lithium Americas​ amid loan negotiations
- Real Estate: US new home sales ​jumped 20%​ in August, defying expectations
- Music & Film: ​Broadway attendance is up​, but shows face financial strain amid rising costs and shrinking margins
- Sports: Private equity firm pitches ​taking FCS playoff private​, moving it from NCAA control to a commercial model
- Crypto: Tether seeks ​$500 billion valuation​ in ambitious capital raise
- Collectibles, Culture and Luxury: CLLCT aims to become first ​memorabilia agency​ with Islanders deal for ​Game Originals​
- Farmland: Nuveen launches ​farmland REIT​ as agricultural property values rise
- Wine, Whisky and Spirits: Sports-branded booze boom: ​Panthers bubbly, Jets wine, Manning whiskey​
Let’s go
Table of Contents
International Investing
Around the world…
- 🇦🇷 US announces ​full bailout for Argentina​ with bond purchases, swaps, and credit lines. Argentine assets ​rebound sharply​.
- 🇲🇦 Morocco to build a ​4,800 km power cable​ linking Saharan energy to Germany
- 🇨🇩 Congo to replace its ​cobalt export ban​ with quota system from October
- 🇦🇺 Australia’s retirement funds push ​private market integration​
Startups & VC
- Kalshi and Polymarket are both looking to acquire prediction markets platform ​Novig​
- Stripe explores ​buyback plan​ to ease pressure from investors ahead of IPO
- Revolut is the most successful crowdfunding project in history: Early backers saw a ​244,000% return​ from Crowdcube
- MNT-Halan launches ​Egypt’s first secured digital lending​ solution
- Kingscrowd hosts ​Investment Crowdfunding Week​ Sept 29–Oct 2, with live pitches and panels
Do IPOs still matter?
IPOs were once the pinnacle of corporate success — a graduation ceremony into the public markets.
But today, companies now have more ways than ever to raise capital and give insiders liquidity without ringing the bell.
In this week’s Sunday Edition, we dig into why IPOs are ​at risk of becoming a dumping ground​ for companies that couldn’t sell upstream.
Music & Film
- Broadway attendance is up, but shows face ​financial strain​ amid rising costs and shrinking margins
- Major labels ​expand lawsuit against Suno​ over AI-generated songs
- Universal and Sony back neural fingerprinting platform to detect ​AI copyright theft​
- Spotify deletes ​75 million spam tracks​ as it rolls out new AI music policies
- New research shows listeners increasingly favor ​local artists​ over global superstars on Spotify
AI-generated artist lands a million-dollar record deal
“​Xania Monet​” has just made history.
The artist has a soulful, beautiful, tearjerker kind of voice. But she doesn’t exist.
Xania is the AI creation of Mississippi’s Telisha Jones, who writes her own lyrics and uses Suno to generate the music.
Collectibles, Culture and Luxury
- CLLCT aims to become first ​memorabilia agency​ with Islanders deal for ​Game Originals​
- High-end sports cards: ​basketball overtakes baseball​ in 2025 market dominance
- Bonhams fetches record prices for ​Downton Abbey costumes and props​ at London auction
- ​Fraggle Rock and Labyrinth memorabilia​ heads to Juliens auction
- Tony Hawk’s “900 Collection” of ​personal skateboards and trophies​ hits the block at Julien’s auction
CLLCT is becoming a memorabilia agency
When CLLCT first launched, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Will Stern is super sharp, but media is a tough business to make work on its own. I was wondering if they had a bigger plan.
Now we’re seeing what that plan is. CLLCT is positioning itself as the first ​memorabilia agency​. They’re helping teams and leagues capture historic moments, authenticate them, and turn them into fan experiences and revenue streams.
Cool to see their playbook starting to unfold.
Crypto
- Tether seeks ​$500 billion valuation​ in ambitious capital raise
- House lawmakers urge SEC to implement ​Trump’s crypto 401(k) order​
- Metaplanet becomes ​fifth-largest public BTC holder​ with $632M bitcoin buy
- CFTC launches ​tokenized collateral pilot​ for derivatives trading
Private Equity & Private Credit
- Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund anchors ​Blue Owl data center platform​ with $3B investment
- Blackstone to lend $2B to ​small developers in Europe​
- Sagard and Unigestion ​combine PE operations​ into $23B platform
- Private credit expands its foothold in ​Collateralized Loan Obligations​ as sales surge
- Former Blackstone exec launches ​debut secondary fund​
Sports
- Private equity firm pitches ​taking FCS playoff private​, moving it from NCAA control to a commercial model
- Rays’ ​$1.7B sale approved​, setting stage for new stadium plans
- NFL cools on having the ​Super Bowl abroad​ despite Vikings-Steelers matchup in Ireland
- MLB approves ​robot umpires​ for new challenge system
Real Estate
- US new home sales ​jumped 20%​ in August, defying expectations
- Compass and Anywhere merge to create the ​world’s largest brokerage​
- Apartment construction boom pushes rents down in ​Austin, Phoenix, Denver, Raleigh, Nashville and Atlanta​
- Tenants at Capital Realty Group push to ​unionize​ across properties nationwide
- JobsWatch data warns ​falling employment​ could weigh on housing demand
Artwork
- A Pauline Karpidas collection auction stunned the market when interior design pieces like ​crocodile stools and mirrors​ blew past estimates, including a mirror fetching nearly $5M
- Thomas Kaplan to ​fractionalize Rembrandt trove​ in world’s largest private collection
- ​Rare European coins​ from the Traveller Collection hit auction block
- Picasso painting ​surfaces after 80 years​, heads to auction in France
Karpidas auction delivers surprise winners
Wyatt has been all over the art market lately.
A few weeks ago, in ​Art’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad summer​, he he warned that the season’s weak sales could spell trouble.
But the recent ​Karpidas auction​ told a different story. The big surprise wasn’t in paintings at all but in interior design: furniture and decorative objects, including a mirror that sold for nearly $5 million.
This is sign that while traditional categories may be cooling, wealth is still chasing scarcity in unexpected corners of the market.
Art collection IPO?
Billionaire investor Thomas Kaplan plans to ​fractionalize the Leiden Collection​, the world’s largest private Rembrandt collection, through an IPO dubbed Project Minerva.
The move would let millions of people buy tradable shares in Old Masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer, securing the collection’s future and expanding public access.
Precious Metals and Gems
- Trump administration seeks ​equity stake in Lithium Americas​ amid loan negotiations
- U.S. considers ​critical minerals fund​ to secure supply chains
- Global copper supply crisis worsens as ​El Teniente halt​ deepens shortage
- Gold rally continues: should you ​chase the shine​ or sit tight?
Farmland
- Nuveen launches ​farmland REIT​ as agricultural property values rise
Introducing the Salad Fund
Milan Z, the founder we featured earlier this year, is back with ​The Salad Fund​, connecting investors to high-tech greenhouses growing baby-leaf salads.
Investors buy square meters of greenhouse space, receive 100% of profits until capital is returned (about six years), then share profits 50/50 with the fund.
Harvests run weekly with annual payouts, and fees are taken only from profits, not principal.
Wine, Whiskey & Spirits
- Sports-branded booze boom: ​Panthers bubbly, Jets wine, Manning whiskey
That’s all for this week.
See you next time, Stefan
Disclosures
- This issue was sponsored by FranShares
- This issue contains no affiliate links
