island. officials say curves could include providing internet to the cubans. mass demonstration took place earlier this month in havana protest shortages, power outages, and government policies. former president donald trump pressed top doj officials last year to declare the presidential election was corrupt, despite no evidence of fraud. notes released by the house oversight committee detail a phone call exchange with then acting ag jeffrey rosen and his deputy richard donahoe, in which trump said, just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me. the report is the latest example of the former president's attempt to delegitimize the election. thailand's prime minister has rolled out tighter containment measures to quell a region covid outbreak. however, he hinted there could be an extension of quasi

lockdowns in certain spots, including bangkok. the country says active cases are at an all-time high of nearly 200,000. broadway theaters will be required to be vaccinated against covid and wear masks to attend performances. the ongoing dangers of the virus prompted theater owners and operators to issue the mandate. it come dated for the first broadway play in more than 16 months is to resume performances. children in a little to get a shot will be admitted if tested for the virus. global news 24 hours a day, on-air, and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm ed ludlow. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> i'm jon erlichman, this is

bloomberg markets. matt: we welcome our bloomberg and bnn bloomberg audiences. here are the top stories we are following for you from around the world. china continues its crackdown. beijing presses ahead with moves to assert greater control over tech companies. we will discuss the fallout here in the usa and in canada. and we dig into the world of crypto and the amazing growth of the exchange ftx. sam bring -- sam bankman-fried joins us in moments. and the art of investment. we speak to someone from sotheby is about the demand in the art market, especially for wearable art, something that we used to call jewelry. jon: [laughter] we see an evolution of just about everything, including the markets. on this friday, we have seen weakness in north american stocks.

in terms of the stock market picture, wrapping up the trading week, noticeable weakness across the board when we are talking about the s&p and nasdaq. certainly, the earnings story has been front and center, talking about amazon falling short of expectations. we should remind audiences, the s&p coming off of a record run, and still on pace for a positive month. in fact, it on pace for the eighth month of gains for the s&p out of the last nine. one of the factors beyond earnings that have been weighing on the stock market this week and today is the continued crackdown in china, rattling investors who are now twice about investing in certain sectors. we know most recently chinese authorities summoned the country's largest technology companies for a warning on data security, allowing tighter oversight of listings, accusing ride-hailing companies of anticompetitive behavior. the moves offering investment

little -- will slow in the second quarter. i know that we did see, in some cases, stocks, of their worst levels. it has clearly been a rough year for this group. matt: absolutely. you have to wonder how much courage is necessary to invest in china, certainly on the mainland, if these kinds of changes can be made by the wave of a wand. it is not like you have the same structure or rule of law like you have in western economies. i guess that is just the risk you take. are you being paid for that risk, are you getting the proper risk premium, i think is the question investors are asking themselves. some are starting to ask themselves if it is un-investa ble. here in the u.s., the sec has

halted ipos of chinese companies until they boost disclosures of those risks posed to shareholders. ben bain has been following the story and joins us now. what kind of risks need to be disclosed, what has to be said to investors before they can get back into, before chinese regulators can allow ipos to go ahead? ben: a lot of the points that you just raised, actually. one of the things we saw today was sec chair gary gensler coming out with a statement saying those recent actions by the chinese government, which includes enhanced security views, our relevant information to u.s. investors. the sec is essentially a disclosure agency. while they are not putting an edict saying no chinese

companies can list in the united states, they are saying if they are things that u.s. investors need to know about risks in china that don't exist elsewhere, or how these companies are structured -- for example, a lot of them use shell companies because the government does not allow certain industries to have firms listed abroad or taken foreign money. if that is not clear to investors in the united states through the disclosure statement or registration statement, sec will not sign off on those going forward. what you have today is a clear response from the sec to what we have seen over the past several weeks and months happening in china. certainly, what we saw last year, here in the u.s., more scrutiny over the chinese, and whether they were complying with requirements here in the u.s.. jon: as much as the focus is on with the sec is up to, how much

pressure is coming from capitol hill specifically? ben: starting last year, we really saw this. this is one of the only bipartisan issues that i could think of last year, heading into the election. there was a united call for chinese firms to allow u.s. regulators to look into their audits, make sure their financial audits were complying with u.s. rules. there is a rule that if you are going to list on a u.s. exchange, an agency has to be able to inspect those audits. essentially, on capitol hill, lawmakers have been pushing the sec to get tough on that. what we saw today also in the statement from chair gensler was, in addition to disclosing those risks with shell companies, involvement with the chinese government, these companies also need to disclose

clearly that they understand the risks, that they need to allow the u.s. inspectors to look at their audit, or they could face delisting here in the u.s. matt: what are we still waiting to hear from the chinese? could we get more information, for example, from the party? ben: without a doubt. this is very much a developing situation. important to note, this is not an edict, not anyone saying chinese companies cannot list in the united states. we have not heard that coming from china either. this has been a slow and steady kind of reshuffling we have seen in the past year. we have a new sec chair as well, only been in for a couple months. this is the most concrete steps we have seen so far from the current leadership, financial regulators here in the united

states, responding to what is a changing and developing situation in china. i am sure it will continue to be that way for the next several months. jon: before we let you go, as much as the focus is on what is happening in washington, we've been showing the audience some of those ipos on wall street. we should remind the audience how lucrative some of that chinese ipo and deal activity has been for wall street firms. ben: absolutely. this has been a very important revenue stream, important part of u.s. capital markets. it doesn't seem like there is any desire on any apart to see that go away. but what we are seeing here in washington, starting last year with capitol hill, the end of the trump administration, and now into the biden

administration, current chair of the sec, with the statement today, saying if these companies are going to be listed here in the u.s., they will need to disclose more information. we are dealing with legal different structures, different risks. the sec, has a disclosure agency, is essentially drawing a line, saying we are concerned about u.s. investors and the type of information they are getting. they seem to be saying it is not enough. you need to be putting more out there if you want to keep listing here. jon: helpful perspective, as always. the latest on the china story. we will continue to track it, as we track what is happening in the world of cryptocurrencies. when we come back, we will talk about that explosion of competition for your business on crypto exchanges. one player in particular, ftx u.s. has seen a surge of activity on its platform.

we will speak to the ceo of ftx. sam bankman-fried will join us next. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt jon erlichman. one of the most visible exchanges encrypt to has been ftx. it made a big marketing push in the sports world, signing a recent ad deal with major league baseball. it will be the official crypto trader of the mlb. it's u.s. affiliate said this week its average daily volume reached new highs in the first half of the year. daily volume between $150 million and $1 million, making it one of the largest trip to

exchanges in the u.s. by volume. and they have -- let's just say a couple of very big celebrity sports and modeling investors. jon: they certainly do. in building any brand, if we are talking about a product or service, there is that good marketing push. there's also the simple things, like ease-of-use, is the technology working for me, can i link my various financial platforms easily? do i trust it? all of this seems to go into this sector which is incredibly complicated around the world given the interest of getting into the market. matt: cybersecurity has to be first among your concerns if you are trading big size in crypto. let's bring in the founder of ftx, sam bankman-fried. let me ask you about competition.

given all the issues that jon just mentioned, there are a lot of concerns about choosing an exchange. there are a lot of exchanges out there. how does ftx differentiate itself? sam: thanks for having me. our biggest strength has always been our product. we relate to the game, we didn't have nearly as big -- as some of the overseas exchanges. we thought really hard on how to build the product, having close to 100% uptime even in volatile markets, having a ton of different product for people to use, making the sign-up flow easy and fast, having fast response from customer support, and making sure that all the technology that underpins this is really robust, especially during volatile moments when you're at the most risk of falling down.

jon: that is a helpful comment in a week that we had the robinhood ipo. for an operator like yourself, i would imagine, yes, you want to build the platform, people to come, but you also want a system in place where people are not necessarily getting ahead of themselves. we hear about leverage all the time. you have been thinking significantly about that? sam: i think one thing that is a misconception here, every sector has -- and it. the reason for that is because they are more economically efficient, more capital efficient. they make hedging easier. i think it is really important for the space to have markets. on the other hand, you look at the high that these platforms offer. it was a really small fraction of the actual exchange, less

than 1% of the volume. but it was attracting a lot of attention. it was not important for the business, was not setting the right standard for the industry. it was not giving the right image for the industry. we decided that it was time to make a change, so we cut down on max leverage on ftx substantially, to levels that we think are more economically important. hopefully that will make it clear. the average user has about a 2x leverage. we want to make it clear that that is our intention. matt: i have to ask you about working with tom brady and gisele bundchen, how that came about. i am fascinated by him, just his ability to win is unbelievable. she seems to be a huge part of that, has her own incredible

career outside of their family. how did that come about? what are they doing for ftx? sam: we sort of reached out to them as one of the few people in the brawl that has an absolutely massive reach and respect. that stretches beyond almost everyone else. that was one part of the draw. the endless drive and success is one piece. another piece is gisele's excitement about charity and giving back. the last thing, which is important, they were excited to work with us. frankly, we don't want to have lots of partners or endorsements, affiliates who have no interest in our business, who are bored by it. it is just going to show come it will not be authentic. it was a combination of all of those things, and they found it exciting, which made it feel

like a good fit. matt: you talk about wanting to have the right look, wanting to set the right tone in terms of global regulation. it has been pointed out that u.s. investors are sort of circumventing access, using your overseas exchange. i know you have looked into that, worked on it in order to put a stop to it. what is happening there, what are you doing to keep up with best practices? sam: we analyze the information, we always have. the clearest duty that an exchange has,, and has been for a long time, before even some of the other changes were doing it. we try hard to restrict the jurisdictions we need to restrict. we have a slight brick --

separate platform for the u.s., regulated in u.s. and has separate features from the non-us platform. we partner with a company that was building a natural language processing-based tool to detect people from restrict to jurisdiction -- restricted to jurisdiction. we found about 1% of 1% of our volume. we closed down those accounts. we also tacked on a little bit more in our process to prevent them from registering in the first place. all of these are places where people are presenting false information to the platform. it's about understanding where and when people are doing that, how significant it is, and what we can do to suss that out. continue to make that harder.

jon: helpful context. joining us in these off hours from hong kong. you have a reputation for not sleeping enough but obviously building quite a business. sam bankman-fried. the story of ftx we will continue to track. also in the world of wearable art. sotheby's is getting into that. we will have more, next. ♪

jon: you can now own a wearable version for a mere $90,000. so the bees at the center of the story. tiffany dubin vice president of sotheby's is with us now. in this world of wearable art, how has it evolved? >> the world of wearable art, sculpture to where is booming. the global art industry is 2020. we are talking about a $50 billion industry. this is an area that now people are going into. matt: sorry to interrupt you. we don't have much time. i want to know what you think about the possibility of appreciation here. if you bought a balloon dog, you have done well with your money.

is that going to be the same kind of investment potential with these wearable art pieces? >> value will increase but you have to do your homework. it has to be a part of the body of work of an artist, has to be rate from them right goldsmith. it has to have a context. this is not jewelry. this is artwork, another medium the artist is playing with. does that answer your question? matt: indeed. jon: i guess protect the art as well that you are wearing. tiffany: protect the art and make sure it is stamped, make sure you know who the goldsmith is that you worked on it. make sure you know the artist that worked closely and was involved in the process, did not just license their name. it is very important to do your homework and understand that this is part of a bigger picture of an artist's work. a lot of times, this is the third-generation, the third

tier. matt: tiffany dubin, thank you very much, sotheby's vice president of development. this is bloomberg. ♪ s bloomberg. ♪ so... i know you and george were struggling with the possibility of having to move. how's that going? well... we found a way to make bathing safer with a kohler walk-in bath. it has the lowest step-in of any bath. it has handrails, a wide door, and textured surfaces. so it gives you peace of mind. and you would love the heated backrest - and the whirlpool jets - and the bubblemassage. and, it was installed quickly and conveniently by a kohler-certified installer. a kohler- authorized dealer walked us through every

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preventing millions of americans from facing homelessness. she is laying the floor for a vote to extend the eviction moratorium. >> the money is there, resting in localities and governors offices across the country. we would like the cdc to extend the moratorium. that's where it can be done, and of course, with the public message of governors and mayors etc.. give the money to the renters. >> president biden is facing criticism from some allies for not acting sooner. the white house says the administration was caught offguard due to the recent surge in cases. a halt in ipo's of chinese companies pending disclosures of investment risks. the sec chair said beijing's recent crackdown of foreign listings and enhanced cybersecurity is relevant. beijing has faced