Thank you for following along for our recent mini-series on the alternative asset market. A few people asked why I did a series like this as it’s a little different than what I have historically focused on with leading authors and entrepreneurs.
I have always been interested in leadership, meaning and purpose. More specifically, why people do what they do and the underlying, often unexamined, meaning beneath it.
In this case, I wanted to go a little deeper on some commercial themes that are impacting our broader economy to challenge my less researched understanding on a few of these topics.
While I believe a sense of meaning is of utmost importance, I have also learned and observed that without economic security, societies don’t have the same agency to pursue meaning on their own terms which makes it interesting and important to include economics and business concepts as part of my historical focus areas.
We covered bitcoin, sports ownership, private credit and private equity.
Here were the top takeaways from the series:
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency - Crypto and the underlying technology continue to have a lot of promise, however practical applications are still relatively untested and the primary benefit remains being a store of value. Despite the fluctuations that occur when the economy tightens, and noise of memecoins and yolo bets, the majority of bitcoin holders specifically are long-term holders.
Sports Ownership - Sports is remarkable in the digital age as vehicle for community, identity and among the last frontiers for live entertainment. As sports continues to converge with entertainment, media and tech, we’re seeing what seem to be more non-linear investments in media rights, stadium development and within the sports teams and leagues themselves through private equity and venture investment.
Private Credit - Lending outside the regulated banking environment has grown from $500B to $2T in AUM in the last 10 years, and is expected to grow to $3T by 2030. It’s particularly popular among private equity firms to allow them to access capital tailored to their needs. While the asset class has performed well historically, there are concerns that the industry is overextended as well as concerns as to who is really holding the risk for these loans, whether pension funds or HNW individuals, and what’s the impact of a correction in this asset class.
Private Equity - There has been such a massive growth in this space with statistics showing that there are more private equity firms in the U.S than there are McDonalds locations. With concerns of a private markets correction, many pension funds and historical funders are reallocating away from private equity. Concurrently, with valuation adjustments over the last 5 years, many firms are struggling to exit prior investments and those observing the industry say that the rise in retail access to private equity funds are the firm’s efforts to tap a new market to make up for the liquidity needs associated with pension fund reallocation and longer hold periods for investments.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the series, as well as content and guest suggestions for the future. Thanks for a great year, looking forward to 2026.
- Adam
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