Meta Platforms Banned & Serena Williams' Venture Fund

the meta platforms extremist organizations. The war on disinformation about a war plus discontent at Disney a planned walk out Tuesday over what some call Florida's Don't Say Gay Bill is causing some to question the future of Disney CEO Bob J. Peck and what Serena Williams takes from the court to investing the Tennis Are joins us to talk about her first venture fund and talks about everything from Tom Brady to her own thoughts about retirement and what

the Serena Slam of business might be. Russia is ramping up its ban on information of court, banning both Facebook and Instagram. The metal platforms now officially blocked across the country. This is the first time Russia's sweeping extremism law has been used against a foreign tech company, joining me now bluem Works. Kurt Wagner, as well as David Kirkpatrick, founder and editor in chief of Teconomy. Kurt, I want to start with you here, Facebook and Instagram, we're already banned

in Russia. How is this different? Yeah, as you pointed out, they were blocked, Um, I believe Instagram was just last week and Facebook has been a couple of weeks now. And and what this does, is my understanding, is that makes it actually um an issue. It's a crime if you are working for one of these companies, If you were supporting one of these companies, you'd be considered supporting,

you know, extremist behavior or an extremist corporation. And so I think it's clear if you're an employee that would be a problem. Facebook says that they don't have employees in Russia right now. UM. But I think that raises some questions around what happens if you're an advertiser on one of these platforms, what happens if you're a an investor who owned stock in one of these platforms? Is that considered a financial support of of a meta um

in this case? And I think that's somewhat confusing still, but ultimately, you know, it just makes these um the band much more official than just a simple block. A lot of interesting questions there, David, curious for your take on this. It seems to be a rather rare example of Facebook coming off looking like a good guy. It's true. Uh, I think this is the first time I've been on your show in a long time where fundamentally I have to say Facebook is the good guy. Facebook was providing

genuine information in Russia. Yes it was banned, but this new legal ruling is turning the screws even tighter. Although we have to be aware, in Russia there really is no legal systems of the type that we know. The courts are simply a rubber stamp for whatever the government decides. So yes, it's true that advertisers or even users or Facebook could be in jeopardy, but given the nature of the way Russia works, if the country, if the government wanted to come down on those people, it could do

so for whatever reason it chose. But Facebook, look, the best thing that could happen to them right now would be another AIRBS ring, which would basically show the world that they actually can be used for good things. Because they're in the doghouse for all kinds of reasons. Otherwise, Karl, what are the chances this could lead to criminal charges against Facebook and Instagram employees? I think that's the idea.

I believe that if you are, you know, an employees working at the company, um, you could then be accused of, you know, aiding this extremist considered extremist activity right um. Now again, I talked to someone on Facebook earlier this morning. I was told that they don't have employees in the

country right now. But it does raise some questions around perhaps Russian nationals who work for Meta or Facebook um in other countries right if they're seen to be working for Meta, maybe they don't live in Russian now, can they? Can they return to Russia at some point? Maybe they have family there? What happens there? So it's definitely a complicated issue, um that is creating, you know, some questions

at Meta today. So far, what's up met which is another meta platform, doesn't appear to be blocked, and it doesn't appear that that Twitter and YouTube have fallen under this this law either. David, what do you make of that? Well, I would probably say it's just a matter of time probably in all three cases. Uh, certainly What'sapp has virtue of being invisible to the authorities because it's entirely encrypted,

so they can't really see what's happening inside it. Um But I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were later decided that What'sapp constituted a threat. All they have to do was see evidence that it's causing problems for them. Like I said before, the government of Russia can act

by FIAT on anything they want any time. And in terms of YouTube in particular, there's been a lot of speculation today that YouTube might be very shortly to experience something very similar to what Facebook and Instagram I've seen Twitter. You know, obviously Twitter would be a very logical candidate for shutdown as well. Karl, what do you make of the fact that Russia hasn't appeared to take official action on these other platforms yet. I would agree with David.

I feel like this is just probably a matter of time. But I think the fact that Meta has been so kind of aggressive in policing and cutting off state backed media from Russia. You remember, Emily last week they had this kind of change in policy where if you're in Ukraine you can actually post things kind of wishing violence upon invading Russia forces. I think that alone, that policy, that kind of loophole where they said, hey, normally this would be against the rules, but if you're in Ukraine

you can do this. Um. I think that really angered uh, you know, authorities in Russia, and they pointed to that as being a real issue that they seem to be taking a firmer stance on Meta than they are in these other companies. David. Obviously, the bigger question here is what does Russia's Internet start to look like over the long term? Does is this the beginning of a digital iron curtain that will remain down for years? Will there be a totally separate Russian Internet as we have seen

in China. Well, actually the answer to that is unequivocally yes. Um, there is a digital iron curtain that has been slowly dropping. Anyway, I think what could result would be even worse than the kind of system that the China has, because at least China is a digitally savvy country at the national level. UM. Russia actually had been re searching in recent years the possibility of changing the way that you are l's actually work so that you wouldn't necessarily be able to type

in the same thing. You could type in here and have it go to the same place. That would really be the ultimate example of a different sort of Internet, because even in China, the U r L is all work the same way. But that is where Russia is headed. You can't completely shut down information and still have an Internet as we know, and they are shutting down all information flow to their people. Kurent What are the business implications of this? Obviously, China is such a massive market.

Russia is a much smaller market, but certainly still an important one. Yeah, I believe the CFO of Meta, Dave Wayner, said last week at a conference that the total business in Russia between you know, advertisers in the country but then also advertising out of the country trying to reach people within Russia was something about one point five percent of Facebook's total advertising revenue. Now, that's a lot of money,

but it's not a massive amount of money. And I wrote in our newsletter last week that I don't know if Meta has the financial incentives to try and you know, bend over backwards to get back into Russia, right whereas uh, you know, they might be willing to make concessions in other parts of the world. I just don't think they're business. Their business is big enough there for them to sacrifice a lot of the stuff that they've been willing to do up till now, and so that's one of the

reasons I again agree with David. I'm not sure if if this might be the beginning of a totally different version of the Internet for Russian citizens moving forward. Certainly a fascinating and evolving situation. Kurt Wagner for Bloomberg to Economies David Kirkpatrick, thank you both. Tuesday, Disney employees planned to put their discontent on full display, planning to walk out in protest of Florida's Don't Say Gay Bill, or so It's called, which Governor Ron De Santis hasn't signed

yet but is expected to. This bill essentially bands schools from discussing gender issues with children. Disney CEO Bob Kapec initially refused to release an official statement on the bill until last week. Many cast members have been doing mini walkouts every day during their breaks. This will be a much bigger walk out Tuesday, however. Disney hosting a town hall today to try to quell some of this anger internally. For more on what it all means for the future

of Disney CEO Bob Kapeck. I'm joined by Lightsheed Partners, Rich Greenfield Rich. Disney is now holding this meeting today to try to cut some of the tension here. What do you make of the fact that Disney employees have been so vocal about their their unhappiness with how Disney CEO Bob Kapec has handled this. Look, We've seen a lot of voicing of feelings among employees of over the

course of the last couple of years. I mean, if you think about sort of the furloughing of employees and sort of the layoffs that occurred around the pandemic, I mean, this has been a very difficult couple of year period um for all consumers, are all employees around the world, but certainly for Disney employees, this has been especially challenging. Look, I think the reality is executives and management teams are

going to make mistakes. I think the real um hallmark of long term success is whether they recognize those mistakes and pivot quickly. And I think that's what you're seeing here by Disney is pretty rapid change. You know, this is not letting this drag on and sort of addressing the issue very quickly. I can't speak to why the original decision was made and what the logic was, but I think it is comforting that the speed of changing their minds what was swift, because I think that's what

really matters. And again, Disney is at this really critical crossroads as Tiger has left at the end of last year and now shape because in full control. I think we're all waiting to see who is Bob Chapick? What is his long term Disney plan? And I guess to your question, Emily, will we get to see it because he's got a year left on his contract, will we get to see Schapick really put in in motion his

long term plan? Well? And I guess what I wonder what your answer to that question is, Are these staffers upset enough that this should should should should should give Bob Speck some serious concerns about his job. Look, I think the he must have heard loud and clear how broad based the fear was or concern was around this issue for them to reverse course so publicly, so quickly.

Um not to mention the internal meetings and everything that you've seen, but look, Bob Schapick's long term future is going to be most likely judged on the big strategic decisions he makes. What is their plan for Disney Plus? Is it being merged with Hulu? Are they creating one service and really going after or Netflix and trying to become a massive streaming company. Are they really going to focus on just Disney content? Might they sell ESPN and ABC?

Like why are they in the sports business? You know, sports is not a business that you can scale. You can't own the content. You know, the NFL owns the NFL, not Disney. Uh. You know, if you think about the UFC, which has been the biggest piece of of ESPN Plus that's owned by Endeavor E d Er public company. So you sort of get back to, like, why is Disney in some of these businesses and what is this long

term strategy? There is no doubt Bob Iger set in motion and tremendous you know, ramp in Disney Plus subscribers. But as you look at where we are now and look out over the course of the next five to ten years, the question is is what does Disney want to be when it grows up in streaming? Does it want to be something for everyone? Like Netflix, or does it really want to stick to its core franchises and verticals, which is probably a smaller but also very successful and

very profitable busines. This if you scaled that, what do you make of the Eiger side of this story? You know, the fact that Iger doesn't disagree with doesn't agree with this, this position, that SHAPEC initially took that thing, reportedly no longer talk Oiger and Spec. I mean, the speculation going so far. You know, some I'm saying I could replace Bob Speck, which I believe Bob Iger has has said that's ridiculous. Um, But you know, we're in a rapidly

evolving situation here. Look, this has been a relatively challenging, you know, couple of years, I think for any executive going through the pandemic, a lot of layoffs, a lot of change, closing down operations. I mean, look even I think Shanghai Disney World just closed down again just today. I believe, so this is sort of a never ending saga that impacts employees and creates a lot of emotion.

We're obviously living in a social media world where people can express their views about how they feel very visibly. Look in terms of Iger verse a pick. You know, I don't really know what to say other than you know, Bob Iger's gone, Shaping is now in charge, and the question is going to be I don't think what Bob Iger feels or doesn't feel anymore matters. I think what really matters is what does the board think and what does shareholders think? You know, at the end of the day,

the stock obviously is down a lot. Investors are concerned that they don't really understand what the strategy is. You know, are they going after Netflix or is this more of a Disney focus service. I mean, we've been Disney has effectively been dragging its feet on Hulu. Comcast owns a third of it. What is the Hulu plan? Is it all about being rolled in and creating one mega service or are they going to continue to run three streaming service?

Remember there's Disney plus, there's Hulu, and there's the ESPN plus. It seems from a consumer standpoint, having multiple log ins, multiple different interfaces seems suboptimal. Obviously part of that is Comcast fault and sort of battling over price. But if you think about what I did when he came in, he made a very important strategic decision that shaped the

entire future of his run as CEO. He bought Pixar, and that was a tremendous acquisition that completely changed how investors thought about the Walt Disney Company and the content and the I P and the rest is obviously history. The question for Shapeck is, you know, do you KEEPSPN? Do you keep ABC? Do you want to be in the general entertainment business? Do you emerge huluin with Disney plus? The KEEPESPN plus? Like, all of these are these big

strategic decisions. I think we're gonna get a lot of answers about all of this over the course of the next nine months. But I think the stock is somewhat struggling, and I think we're struggling with the stock not knowing exactly what Shape's gonna do. So we'll be seeing just how big this walk out from employees is Tuesday. But

do you think this blowback could spread to consumers? Obviously there's been some discontent with the Genie reservation system, the sky high pricing um, the star Wood Star Wars hotel. Could assumers revolt? Look, you know, my partner Brandon Ross at Lightshed covers the live entertainment in business, you know, like you think I think you had. Michael Roupino's been talking pretty openly Live Nation about just the incredible demand for concert tickets even with rising you know, gas prices.

I mean, you've just seen incredible demand for experiences. Disney World is literally packed to the gills. Margins are moving to levels we haven't seen in years, if ever eventually, and so like, look, there's always risk. I think if Disney probably hadn't reverse course and sort of addressed the concerns of employees very quickly, sure, I think anything was possible. I think the real issue is going to be right now,

they're raising pricing and taking advantage of this environment. I mean, inflation is obviously rising, and I think they're literally looking at demand. They can't keep the parks, they can't handle the demand, and I think that's partly why they're taking advantage and raising price. But investors, they're not worried emily about the parks. Investors have one concern. They're only worried about Disney Plus and what is the streaming long term strategy.

And that's what we're gonna be hoping to hear from Shape when he holds an analyst meeting later this month, right, and of course we'll see how long of a chance he gets to prove himself rich. Greenfield of Light Shed Partners,

thank you as always for Wayne. And now to a MC flipping the script, the entertainment Giant announcing it's buying of a golden silver mining company, an unorthodox move for the world's largest movie theater chain and a past darling of meme stock investors, bloomber Quick takes aux Web explains why is Cinema Chain investing in gold During the AMC it was a big meme stock last year. The market capitalization jumped from a four billion dollars to more than

thirty billion dollars in the space of just a few weeks. Well, the CEO Adam Artan has just announced plans to invest about thirty million dollars in a gold mine, and it says something quite interesting about how he perceives his own company's prospects. You see, the role of CEO is often to do with capital allocation. In other words, how you spend your investors money in a way that will generate the best possible returns for men. And usually you can

do one of three things. You can either invest in the existing business by opening new locations, investing in innovations, adding new headcount. You can think about acquiring a company that will then play well with your existing companies and the two firms work better together than they would on their own. Thirdly, you can just return that money to investors. Now he's not opting to do any of those things. Returning money to investors would be a strange choice because

he only raised from them last year. And besides, a MC trades at a considerable premium to its competitors, so it's not necessarily buying shares at a sable christ when it comes to investing adjacent dials or the existing business. He's sort of telling investors that I can't find a way of generating as good a return as I could by investing in this gold mine. In other words, the implicit suggestion is cinema business is not very good and you should put your money elsewhere. He's just cutting out

of the middleman and doing it himself. Are Alex Web. They're coming up from the tennis court to VC. We're gonna hear from Serena Williams about how she plans to find the next generation of startup Champ, Welcome back to Bloomore Technology and Emily Changes in San Francisco. Let's get back to the markets enter at Ludlow's taking a look at Chinese tech companies, which have had another rough day

in US trading. I take it away, Yeah, I think if there was a pocket of pain on Monday, it was in the US listed shares of Chinese technology companies, in other words, a d R S. And for everything going on in the world right the outlook for the Federal Reserve and rates, what's happening in Ukraine and the conflict with Russia, and global commodity prices, you have to remember you have a bit of sympathy for those investors out there that like Chinese tech companies because they've also

got a track what's going on with policymakers in China. These stocks have been fluctuating all over the place. Another down day Monday, down four percent, really underperforming broader indices here in the United States, broadered moves in technology. So where we've been left, Mrs Director, to bring up the next table, please, is a situation where Wall Street and Cellside analysts aren't getting it right on their forecast for

the price of these US listed Chinese companies. We're talking about big names here, right, Ali Barbera, j D dot Com, Billy Billy, ten Cent Music. And what this board shows is the percentage difference from the current price where the share prices are actually right now, versus the highest price target and the lowest price target on the street. So let's just take Ali Barbara as one example, versus the

price of where we are on our on Monday. The highest street target is a hundred and sixty three above where those shares closed, the lowest below where we are now. And it was all about a change of tone from policymakers. And you and I have been talking for a year about Chinese regulators clamping down on technology and internet companies

in that country. What happened last Wenday Wednesday? Bring up the next board that the Golden Dragon Index, that kind of basket of U S s is Chinese stocks massively underperforming and then wash thirty gain in a single day. Why because policymakers came out and said that they were going to be more supportive these companies and make a real downward push in the stock market. So I have a bit of sympathy and have some sympathy for these Wall Street names that are really struggling to get it right.

I'll try to muster something sympathy and thank you, Tennis legend that Serena Williams has raised a hundred eleven million dollars in her inaugural venture capital fund, the goal to find the next generation of champions from underrepresented backgrounds. Williams has been investing in earliest start up for nine years, but this is the first time she has raised outside capital. I caught up with Williams and her partner Alice and Rappaport Stillman to talk about where they think a new

class of startup stars can be found. Take a listen, we don't check just one box. We really are looking forward to well well health and wellness, film tech as well as fintech. Obviously we're the crypto space and the Web three space and n f t s are something that is on everyone's mind. And um, I don't think you can really have a VC firm and not have some really big part of that into into big car your fum into that part of the Web three space.

So um, we're kind of like looking in those particular areas. Now you've been the greatest of all time in tennis for so long, but in venture capital, you've kind of been in stealth mode or under the radar, and a lot of a lot of celebrities and athletes don't necessarily get taken seriously here unless they're investing directly in the craft. Is there something motivating or energizing about trying to prove

yourself at something new. Yes, And honestly, that's one of the reasons I have been investing so long, and I have been in stealth mode for so long, because I feel like, you know, whether it's an entertainer or it's an athlete, when we try to do something different, it's seen as more of an opportunity as instead of a passion.

This is actually a passion of mine. I wake up every morning thinking, oh my gosh, I cannot wait to open my computer and look at decks or just talk to the company, or just see how what we're gonna do today. Um. And it's something that is I'm super passionate about and I just genuinely have so much fun with it. Um. But yeah, that's also another reason why I was operating in stealth. I really wanted to build

my portfolio. I wanted to build my track record, So when people have questions, I would say, you know, we can just go to our track record, to go to our data room and kind of see what we've done in the past, and it gives you a glimpse of when we do have bigger fund and being able to write those big checks, what will actually you do in the future. Now, Alison, there's a lot of money flowing into the venture capital ecosystem, a lot of competitors out there,

and vcs often claim they have a unique network. Your network with Serena's would seem to be unparalleled. How does that come to life on behalf of your startups? Are there any examples you can share? Yeah, one of the great things we're able to do is leverage the network that Serena's built for the twenty plus years in her career. UM for behind the scenes connections obviously has lots of followers and being on Instagram or something like that is great.

But when we can connect someone to the head of you know, the head of E. S. G At Nike, or we can kind of connect someone to someone at Amazon or Procter and Gamble, those are people that she's in partnered with for a really long time, but are either business development opportunities, potential acquirers, or long of them are investing themselves in startups in the space. So we've been doing a lot of work with that. You said yourself, Serena, you don't like to lose. What do you take from

the court to investing, So that's a good question. You know, it's really about having a winning attitude and really just about um understanding that you have to put a lot of time into this, you know, and you have to put a lot of effort into learning. And for me, I'm the kind of person that I like to really do my homework and really do my due diligence and really just kind of figure out exactly so I can be the best at it because you know, I know what that takes. I know what it takes to be

the best at something in the world. So I'm bringing that to the table and not many people have that. But at the same time I understand that the hard work and the dedication and then also that champions mentality of like, I like winning, So if you do, what does it take to win? And it's really just figuring that out and applying it into this This part of our of my life Allison, speaking of the track record, Serena Ventures has backed thirteen unicorns six exits to date.

What is the advice you're giving the founders right now about the macro economic environment given what we're seeing with inflation and interest rates and GIA political uncertainty. Yeah, there's obviously a lot of risk right now in the world. We think about what that means, but we've also seen in times of kind of great economic distress some of the best companies coming out of that. People are looking

at new opportunities, whether they wanted to or not. Also, with interest rates going up, we have you know, debt's going to start getting more expensive, so there's more opportunity for different forms of financing. And when we're doing at the early stage, it's still the same course. It's make sure you have enough capital to get you to your next stage. How can we help you, What are the things that you need to build to get to that next level, and what are the tools that you need.

So for us, it's it's it's kind of business as usual because there's a lot of opportunity happening right now, a lot of great companies that we are seeing and funding, but also thinking about kind of making sure you have a little bit saved away for a rainy day, because no one knows what's around the corner, Serena. The New York Times ran a story about your fund and mistakenly printed a photo of your sister instead of you. You tweeted about this saying, no matter how far we come,

we get reminded that it's not enough. How did you process that mistake? Um, Honestly, I've been through a lot in my career and in my life, and I don't let one thing tick me off too much. For me, I process process it as an opportunity to use it to let other people know that you're not the only one being overlooked, and let people know. This is why I'm raising Serena Adventures. You know, this is why I

want to make an impact because we can. We need people like me and people like Alison and like our team at Serena Adventures to be writing the big checks to change that narrative so we don't have to be overlooked and just just thought on and just you know, just say okay, let me just write right, let me just post this as fast as I can. I'm not even going to think about it because it doesn't really matter to me, and so it's really about changing that narrative.

And it's UM, I think that's so important because if you have a platform to talk about and to discuss it, then it needs to be discussed. And UM, yeah, I think it's important for other women and other people of color to see that you're not the only one struggling. I mean, I've been number one for I don't know EON's and m one more I can even find. And um, the fact that that can still happen, it's just and and and the truth that this is why we have

Serena ventures. Serena speaking of other great athletes. Tom Brady on retiring, what's your take on that? Um, I think everyone is happy about it, or most people were. I know I was, so it was definitely mixed feelings about him retiring, and then kind of felt pretty good about

the unretirement. I was like, oh, that's exciting. So well, like Tod Brady, you've accomplished seemingly everything possible on the court, and you've now started this second career and investing and you've got other business trist how much longer are we going to see you playing tennis, and are you thinking about the R word more often? I mean, I think every tennis player thinks about the R word as soon as they hit five years because sinness is so intense.

It's literally eleven months out of the year. Um. But I don't know. I you know, I don't know. I'm not I'm living for the day. I always tell people I'm not planning for tomorrow. Only in business, and when it comes to tennis, I'm planning to spread it, all right, So what's the Serena Slam for business? What does that look like? Um? I have never been asked that question, and I've never thought about it. And I think that is such a good idea, Like what a good way?

Because I have I have a Serena Slam in tennis, So what a good idea. I absolutely love that. I'm going to think of something and come back to you on that. I love that. And you just challenged me. I love being challenge. We're going to your trouble. I got work to do today. You just gave you. Um. You have on that note, you have broken so many barriers. You have proved so many people wrong who didn't believe

in you or support you. So I have to ask you about what what happened to Naomi Osaka at Indian Wells. What's your reaction to this, especially given your own experience. Um, yeah, I thought that, you know, I thought that everyone is different. I always say this, I always say everyone is different. Um, it's sport. I know a lot of people in sport, whether it's football. I know in basketball, I mean, shooting a free throw with all the noise and all the

angry words and the fans. It's it's interesting, you know. So it's a part of sport, unfortunately, and you have to be able to, you know, keep going in those times because it's like it's not going. Unfortunately, people can be really mean and that's terrible. And I've been around when people have been really mean and you just kind of have to understand that that's their opinion and just there. It's a free world and they're able to have that opinion.

But yeah, I think that, you know, from my opinion is like, okay, I'm not gonna have that meanness when you know, it's like okay, how do I do I do that? And so unfortunately I hate that. It's a part of sport, but it's part of sport and it will probably always be a part of sport and so um, but everyone's different. Serena Williams and Alison Rappaport still been there from Serena Ventures. You can watch the full interview. We had a lot more fun at Bloomberg dot com.

Coming up, crypto and national security. We're going to speak with the co founder of chain Analysis, also the chief security officer, Jonathan Levin. Out there new tool to monitor russ and sanctions and how they picture the role of crypto in national security going forward. That's next. This is Bloomberg Time now for our crypto report. This now week four of the war on Ukraine and it's been a

wild ride both for financial markets and cryptocurrency. I want to bring in our next guest to talk about uh this and more. Ch Analysis co founder and chief security officer, Jonathan Levine. Jonathan cha Analysis is actually releasing a new tool that would help users identify whether as I understand that the people they're interacting with our sanctioned entities. Can you explain a little bit how this works? Yeah, for sure,

Thanks so much for having me. So Essentially, what we've seen in sanctions in the US come out you know, recently and over the past few years. Is it as it comes back to cryptocurrencies, is that o FAK, the regulator that oversees all of sanctions, actually lists addresses from cryptocurrency blockchains like listed on the screen. Uh, and that actually helps people understand whether they're interacting with people that

are sanctioned individuals that they're prohibited from interacting with. And so you know, what we have released out there is an ability for anyone in the world, free of charge, to actually screen transactions that they're processing against that API or against our smart contract oracle to see whether they

are hitting up against one of those listed addresses by OPAK. Now, I'm wondering what you think, Jonathan, of the role of intermediaries here, exchanges and the necessity to work with lawmakers and regulators. Do you think that there's more of a role that they need to play in order to make

sure that the rules are being followed. Yeah, I think that. Well, the industry has been preparing for this moment a really long time, and you've had exchanges and financial institutions really you know, as they step into the space and mature, all of their risk and compliance programs really go into

business as usual. They know what the scenarios are, they know what they needed to do, and they've been sort of adapting to all of the latest actions bio fak and and regulators around the world that have taken steps to broadened sanctions. So yeah, I think from that standpoint, it's the sort of business as usual or be a little bit busier than usual in a lot of the

sanctions teams in those financial institutions. Right, So, Jonathan, how much evidence are you seeing of Russians potentially using cryptocurrency

to circumvent these rules? So currently we are tracking very closely the macro environment, right, We're looking at all of the entry points and exit points from the Russian economy into cryptocurrencies and tracking sort of changes in liquidity, changes in volumes, different patterns of transactions to really understand has there been a systemic change in the way in which people are using cryptocurrency in Russia and potentially abating sanctions and and you know, so far we're not seeing sort

of the systemic level of crypticocurrency being used to evade sanctions that people were worried about sort of at the beginning of this. How do you think about the role of cyber attacks in this war more largely, is there evidence that this can become a bigger issue here and what's the role here of folks in the crypto community who are also thinking about this at scale. Yeah, I think it's a great question because really what we've seen in this war in general is that you know, cyber

is a domain as part of this warfare. Um you're seeing sort of increased cyber attacks on Ukrainian internet infrastructure, and we've seen sort of activity to do with CONTI ransomware really increase. As you know, there have been some leaks and and some re establishment of Quanti as sort

of the dominant ransomware family out there. And so really it's incumbent on everyone in the industry to work really closely with government and you know, share information about the attacks that are happening so that there can be sort of indicators and shared intelligence across geographies and across business. UM. So I think that there's a lot more partnership to be done, and you're seeing a lot of the development of these task forces and a reprioritization of that in

the US. You believe the war in Ukraine is a key inflection point for the crypto industry. How do you

see this playing out? I think that one thing it's done is it's really surfaced that cryptocurrency can be used for humanitarian purposes, you know, with a distinct example here of the speed by which money was able to go from donors in all these different countries around the world into the hands of the Ukrainian government and then for them to purchase military equipment and emergency food supplies to be able to actually finance some of the defense of

their country. So that is a really sort of tangible example that you know, is now in the minds of a lot of people around the world. You know. The other thing here is that it is actually possible to have you know, sanctions compliance for cryptocurrency businesses around the world.

And so, you know, I think the combination of you know, the legitimacy and the utility of cryptocurrency coming like to the forefront, as well as this increased focus and scrutiny on the regulatory piece, you know, is going to breed sort of an inflection point in how regulated cryptocurrency businesses able to function in in Western economies. Alright. Chinalysis co found er chief security officer Jonathan Levine along with our Shinali Bossic. Thank you. We don't think of it as

a race at Blue Origin. Um. We are in this for the long term. And by long term, I don't mean five years, I don't mean ten years. The vision of Blue Origin is generation spanning. I will not see it happen in my lifetime, maybe not even in my choice. It's lifetime. That is how long the horizon of the Origins vision is. And I'm very excited to be part of these this early step, but it will keep on going.

Chief architect of Blue Origin suborbital rocket there Gary lie back in July when Jeff Bezos made history on the company's first manned rocket to space. Now Live will follow in bezos is Its steps and join Blue Origins flight on March twenty nine. He'll be taking the place of Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, who dropped out of the flight when the company announced the dates had been changed. No additional reason given, and that does it for this

edition of Bloomberg Technology. Join us tomorrow. We'll be joined by Bradley Tusk of Tusk Ventures. He'll talk about crypto investing and who will run the metaverse. That's tomorrow on Bloomberg Technology. I'm Emily Chang. This is Bloomberg