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:
- Startups & VC: VCs place a big bet on prediction marketplaces: Kalshi nets $185m and Polymarket nears $200m round.
- Precious Metals and Gems: Lab-grown diamonds have crashed generic diamond prices, but not ultra-rare pink argyle diamonds
- Crypto: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac may consider crypto assets in mortgage risk assessments
- Private Equity & Private Credit: SPACs are back in fashion
- Farmland: Halter is New Zealand’s new farm tech unicorn
- Music & Film: AI-generated band The Velvet Sundown already have 400,000+ monthly Spotify listeners
- Collectibles, Culture and Luxury: Sotheby’s auctions Lincoln manuscript on abolition of slavery
- 🇹🇻 International Investing: With sea levels rising, Nearly 1/3 of Tuvalu residents seek a new Australian climate visa
- Sports: PayPal partners with Big Ten, Big 12 on student-athlete payments
- Real Estate: May home sales prices hit new highs as inventory remains tight
- Wine, Whiskey & Spirits: All-In Podcast hosts launch The Besties All-In Tequila
Let’s go
Table of Contents
International Investing
Around the world…
- 🇹🇻 With sea levels rising, Nearly 1/3 of Tuvalu residents seek a new Australian climate visa
- 🇧🇷 Brazil raises rates to 15% and signals a prolonged hold
- 🇳🇬 Nigeria’s central bank to diversify foreign reserves away from USD
- 🇳🇴 Norway to invest $400m in Ukraine’s defense industry
Startups & VC
- VCs place a big bet on prediction marketplaces: Kalshi nets $185m and Polymarket nears $200m round.
- FICO credit scores to incorporate BNPL data
- Republic to allow users to buy tokenized SpaceX shares (sort of)
- BlueRedGold raises €2.7M to commercialize indoor saffron production
- Wealthfront plans IPO amid warmer environment for fintechs
Precious Metals and Gems
- Lab-grown diamonds have crashed generic diamond prices, but not ultra-rare pink argyle diamonds
- Marie Antoinette pink diamond sells for $14m at Christie’s auction
- Gold edges higher as Middle East conflict stokes demand
- Rio Tinto to pay $103m to settle fraud claims involving Mongolian copper-gold mine
Read more
I always assumed the diamond market was dead. Killed off by lab-grown diamonds.
Turns out I was only half right. The generic market is hurting, but ultra-rare pink stones are quietly up 5x over the past 20 years. (Including those gorgeous pink argyle diamonds from Australia)
This week, third generation diamond dealer Viral Kothari takes us through the diamond market: an alternative asset in the middle of a huge transition.
Check out this great issue + Viral’s new Diamond company Aquaduct
Crypto
- Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac may consider crypto assets in mortgage risk assessments
- NYSE battles for Trump ETF
- Senator Schiff introduces COIN Act to bar public officials from crypto
- Anthony Pompliano’s ProCap to go public in $1B Bitcoin Treasury SPAC deal
- California’s new law could be plotting a quiet crypto grab
- JPMorgan launches JPMD stablecoin
Private Equity & Private Credit
- SPACs are back in fashion
- M&As are heating up
- War-weary Russian banks fear debt crisis is coming
- Private funds for retail investors jump to $350 billion
- Single Family Offices now account for more than 8% of global pension assets
- Walgreens sales rise on healthcare and cost cuts, as going-private deal nears
Farmland
- Halter is New Zealand’s new farm tech unicorn
- US farmers face tough outlook as China switches suppliers amid trade war
- Lemon prices in Uzbekistan triple amid supply crisis
- Starbucks is raising prices on matcha
Read more
Halter, a New Zealand agtech startup, just raised $165M in Series D funding (led by Bond), pushing its valuation to US$1 billion.
The company makes solar-powered smart collars that use geofencing, sound, and vibration to let farmers virtually herd cattle — no physical fences or herding dogs required. It’s already working with 150 ranchers across 18 U.S. states.
With fresh capital, Halter is expanding across NZ, Australia, and the U.S., riding a wave of VC interest in sustainable, tech-enabled farming.
Music & Film
- AI-generated band The Velvet Sundown already have 400,000+ monthly Spotify listeners
Collectibles, Culture and Luxury
- Sotheby’s auctions Lincoln manuscript on abolition of slavery
- Steph Curry rookie jersey sold at auction
- Fanatics Fest 2025 delivers on its promise to elevate card dealers
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off sweater vest sells at Sotheby’s
- Wagner card falls short of the reserve pricee at Goldin Auctions
- London’s secret wartime tunnels set to draw tourists with spy museum
Sports
- PayPal partners with Big Ten, Big 12 on student-athlete payments
- NFL and UK soccer forge new commercial ties
- Tom Brady wins inaugural $1m prize at Fanatics Games
Cars
Investment Opportunity
UK “Carbitrage”
Typically, importing a car from the UK to the US is so expensive that it’s not worthwhile. Between customs, duties, tariffs, federalization, and shipping, costs can run well into six figures for a luxury vehicle.
However, if the car is 25 years or older, you are exempt from paying most of those fees, specifically, the Trump tariffs and federalization.
This works best for enthusiast vehicles with limited supply, like the Ferrari F355 and air-cooled Porsche 911s. The margin on lower-tier cars evaporates with shipping, insurance, and other expenses.
Auto I is a new three-year investment opportunity by exploiting a legal import loophole in the U.S. for classic cars.
Thesis: Once a vehicle is 25+ years old, it’s exempt from emissions and safety regulations, allowing certain UK cars to be imported and sold at much higher U.S. prices.
Strategy: Buy iconic LHD (left-hand drive) UK vehicles. import them to the U.S. duty-free, and sell within ~6 months.
This is a follow-up to Altea’s successful Film I deal — same model, different asset class.
Artwork
- EU enacts new law to curb antiquities trafficking
- Art world rainmakers team up to form new consultancy
- Royal tomb of King Midas turns up in Turkey
Learn more
There’s a collection of art in Geneva valued at more than $10B. It’s thought there are over a million paintings, and the facility is the size of 30 football fields.
There are similar sites in Luxembourg, Monaco, Singapore, Zurich, Beijing, and … Delaware.
These sites are called freeports, and they’re a remarkable economic invention.
A free port facilitates “the temporary exemption of taxes for an unlimited quantity of time.” Put another way, it’s a giant warehouse used to stash art, antiquities, wine, gold, jewels, and other priceless artifacts and never pay tax on them.
They exist outside the formal jurisdiction of any country; the clients remain anonymous and the assets are kept a secret.
And though you may have never heard of free ports, they’re a big deal in the art world
Real Estate
- May home sales prices hit new highs as inventory remains tight
- PitchBook releases Q1 2025 Global Real Assets Report
Wine, Whiskey & Spirits
- Gen Z not shunning alcohol as much as thought
- All-In Podcast hosts launch The Besties All-In Tequila
Learn more
The whiskey market is cooling after years of hype.
Cask firms have collapsed, investors have been left in the dark, and many are now realizing that a certificate isn’t the same as ownership. Warehouses couldn’t verify claims. Transparency wasn’t just lacking—it was nonexistent.
But the market isn’t dead. It’s evolving.
Smarter platforms now offer real custody, insurance, and exit options. Producers are exploring asset-backed structures that actually align investor capital with real-world inventory. Less hype, more infrastructure.
That’s all we have!
See you next time, Stefan
Disclosures
- This issue was sponsored by AltIndex
- Alt Assets Inc is considering creating an SPV in Auto 1. You must be an accredited investor to invest.
