All you need to know before Wednesday trading on the Saudi bourse

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency internationally, traded lower on Wednesday, down by 3.11 percent to $45,311 as of 8:00 a.m. Riyadh time.

Ether, the second most traded cryptocurrency, was priced at $3,351, down 4.96 percent, according to data from Coindesk.

Hollywood’s future is in the blockchain: WarnerMedia CEO

WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said the future of Hollywood is in the blockchain as he prepares to leave the media company that he helped lead into the streaming era.

Kilar’s career has straddled Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and he sees blockchain, the digital ledgers that keep track of transactions across computer networks, as transforming the entertainment business, especially as the process of acquiring unique digital collectibles such as NFTs becomes simpler.

“I think there’s going to be a potential wave coming to Hollywood, in the same way that the DVD wave came to Hollywood in the ‘90s,” Kilar told Reuters in an interview after he announced his departure to staff on Tuesday.

New sanctions on Russian darknet and crypto exchange

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Tuesday on a prominent Russia-based darknet market site and a cryptocurrency exchange that operates primarily out of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The sanctions against Hydra and currency exchange Garantex, published on the Treasury Department’s website, “send a message today to criminals that you cannot hide on the darknet or their forums,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

According to blockchain researchers, approximately 86 percent of illicit bitcoin received directly by Russian crypto exchanges in 2019 came from Hydra, which the Treasury Department described as the world’s “largest and most prominent darknet market.”

The Treasury said that the new sanctions prohibit US nationals from making or receiving “any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services” to Hydra or Garantex.

Will Smith’s venture capital firm invests in blockchain

Ethereum blockchain scaling platform Boba Network raised $45 million in its Series A round, with participation from investors including Will Smith-led Dreamers VC, Paris Hilton and husband Carter Reum’s M13, and cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, the company said on Tuesday.

The funding round gives Boba a valuation of $1.5 billion, with former football quarterback Joe Montana and crypto funds Hypersphere and Infinite Capital also making investments.

The company plans to use the funds to expand Web3 offerings and invest in projects built on its ecosystem, founder Alan Chiu said.

The market capitalization of Boba Network’s crypto token rose over 19 percent to $272.1 million after the announcement, while its price rose to $1.71 from $1.44, according to CoinMarketCap.

US strengthens investor protection

On Monday, Gary Gensler, the head of the US securities regulator, said the agency is weighing how it could extend investor protections afforded to users of exchanges and alternative trading platforms to crypto trading platforms.

The expanded Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, would see the agency regulate platforms on which the trading of securities and non-securities is “intertwined” by requiring them to register with the SEC, Gensler said in a virtual speech to an audience at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater.

(With inputs from Reuters)