Alternative Investments
Alternative investments provide portfolio diversification beyond traditional stocks and bonds, with direct relevance to DeFi applications. This section covers the major categories of alternatives — features and structures, performance measurement, private capital, real assets, natural resources, hedge funds, and digital assets — each with distinct risk-return profiles and growing DeFi parallels.
Topics
- Alternative Investment Features, Methods, and Structures
- Alternative Investment Performance and Returns
- Investments in Private Capital: Equity and Debt
- Real Estate and Infrastructure
- Natural Resources
- Hedge Funds
- Introduction to Digital Assets
Section Map
The alternative investments curriculum naturally divides into three pillars, each of which has on-chain counterparts in the DeFi ecosystem:
| Pillar | Topics | DeFi Parallels |
|---|---|---|
| Structures & Performance | Features & Structures, Performance & Returns | Enzyme Finance, Yearn vaults, on-chain fee models |
| Private Markets & Real Assets | Private Capital, Real Estate & Infrastructure, Natural Resources | Maple Finance, RealT, Centrifuge, Paxos Gold, tokenized carbon credits |
| Strategies & Digital Native | Hedge Funds, Digital Assets | dHEDGE, Uniswap, Aave, liquid staking (Lido, Rocket Pool) |