- Yieldstreet is one of the best-known examples of American startups with the stated mission of democratizing access to assets such as real estate, litigation proceeds and private credit.
- But some Yieldstreet customers who participated in its real estate deals face huge losses on investments that they say turned out to be far riskier than they thought.
- Of 30 deals that CNBC reviewed information on, four have been declared total losses by Yieldstreet. Of the rest, 23 are deemed to be on “watchlist” by the startup as it seeks to recoup value for investors, sometimes by raising more funds from members.
- Yieldstreet said some of its real estate funds were “significantly impacted” by rising interest rates and market conditions.
When Justin Klish stumbled upon an ad for Yieldstreet in February 2022, he said, it was the company’s tagline that stuck in his head.
“Invest like the 1%,” the startup said.
The ad spoke to his desire to build wealth and diversify away from stocks, which were then in freefall, Klish said. Yieldstreet says it gives retail investors such as Klish access to the types of deals that were previously only the domain of Wall Street firms or the ultrarich.
So Klish, a 46-year-old financial services worker living in Miami, logged on to Yieldstreet’s platform, where a pair of offerings jumped out to him.
He invested $400,000 in two real estate projects: A luxury apartment building in downtown Nashville overseen by former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann’s family office, and a three-building renovation in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York. Each project had targeted annual returns of around 20%.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/18/yieldstreet-real-estate-bets-customer-losses.html