What’s Happening. A View From The Castle.
No clever/funny intro comment required… The market cap of new cryptocurrency “Fartcoin” rose above $1 billion.
I think Alexa is blushing… Ayra, a couples intimacy concierge platform that provides monthly AI-generated guidance to couples for erotic adventures based on their personal desires, raised $8.5 million.
Thought controlled or thought control??? Precision Neuroscience, a startup developing thought-controlled devices, raised a $102 million led by General Equity Holdings.
I thought the public markets were more stable… Since 2022 Carvana’s market cap has increased from $394 million to $53 billion.
Will the incoming SEC leadership try to fight this lawsuit??? Investors in the viral “Hawk Tuah” meme-themed cryptocurrency sued the project’s promoters and developers in federal court for failing to register the asset as a security.
So, crypto is just too centralized??? Crypto exchange Coinbase was hit with a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit in federal court by BiT Global, a company that “wraps” bitcoin so it can be traded on decentralized exchanges, claiming it delisted BiT’s product after creating its own competing product.
“I am the mountain, I am the sea, you can’t take that away from me”… The $13 trillion alternatives investment industry is expected to grow to $30 trillion in the next five years, fueled by demand from institutional and individual investors for private equity, private credit, growth equity and secondaries.
“One giant leap for mankind”… SpaceX was valued at $350 billion in a $1.25 billion secondary share sale that included a $500 million buyback of common stock to provide liquidity for employees and early investors, a 67% increase from its $210 billion valuation earlier this year.
“Someone told me long ago there’s a calm before the storm, I know it’s been comin’ for some time”… Lender extend-and-pretend strategies to avoid fire-sale foreclosure pricing may have run their course. Office loan delinquencies hit 11.2% in November (3X January 2023), and only 11% of the $755 million of CMBS office loans maturing in September were paid off. Delinquencies are expected to peak above 14% by mid-2025 while multifamily defaults also rise.
Because TikTok videos are so compelling… After locking in a $76 billion TV contract over 11 years, NBA viewership is down 20% YOY. Men’s and women’s college basketball ratings are down 21% and 38% this year, respectively, and the NHL is down 28%.
“One thing I can tell you is you got to be free, come together right now, over me”… In another convergence of DeFi and TradFi, MetaMask and Mastercard plan to launch a crypto debit card in the US. It’s a debit card that allows you to spend straight from your MetaMask wallet. Transactions will settle on Linea, an Ethereum layer-2 network.
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