Daily Digest - 1st September 2022

Headlines

▌Meitu's net loss in the first half of the year widened to 266 million yuan, and the cryptocurrency held a floating loss of 300 million yuan

In the first half of the year, Meitu achieved operating income of RMB 971 million, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%; the net loss attributable to company owners was RMB 266 million, compared with a loss of 1.29 yuan in the same period last year. The adjusted net profit attributable to owners of the company increased by 7.9% year-on-year to RMB 35.99 million. Regarding the impairment of cryptocurrencies, Meitu recognised impairment losses of approximately RMB 124.1 million and RMB 181.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022 for the purchased Ethereum and the purchased Bitcoin, respectively.

Cryptocurrency

▌Binance Freezes Crypto Assets of Russian Gun Maker

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance froze wallets associated with Russian gun maker Vladislav Lobaev, which raises funds for the Ukrainian military, according to Lobaev representatives and blockchain data analysis. While the Ukrainian government did not name Lobaev or anyone else, last week the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) issued a press release saying the agency "blocked a crypto wallet belonging to a Russian citizen who Is supporting Russia's war in Ukraine.” The wallet has been identified as the Binance account of Lobaev, who is the founder of Lobaev Arms, a private company that produces rifles and other military ammunition. He frequently requests subscribers on his Telegram channel to donate so that Lobaev can provide more ammunition to the Russian army in Ukraine. The channel lists several payment methods for subscribers to donate, including blockchain addresses for BTC, ETH and USDT.

▌A16z Encryption Department Will Release a Free Licensing System to Help NFTs Establish Industry Standards

The a16z encryption department is preparing to release a free licensing system, hoping to establish some industry standards for how to use NFTs by providing a series of free licensing options that have been reviewed by lawyers in a manner similar to Creative Commons. A16z general counsel Miles Jennings said a variety of approaches were being taken and greater standardisation across the industry would help unlock the sector's economic potential. All six licenses are available on the a16z crypto GitHub: Creator Irrevocable, Respect for Modifications and Adjustments, Support for Transparent Sublicensing, Respect for Third Party Content, Clear License Ownership in Case of Loss, and License Deploy to Arweave.

▌Polygon’s New Version of Avail Testnet Is Now Live

The new version of Polygon Avail testnet, which was trying to solve the data availability problem, is now live. The core problem with monolithic blockchain architectures is the need to combine execution, settlement, and data availability in the same block. Layer-2 (L2) rollups started the modular blockchain movement by allowing execution to be handled on a separate chain, with blocks dedicated solely to execution. Polygon Avail takes modular design one step further by decoupling data availability as well, and allowing for a chain with blocks dedicated solely to data availability.

Key Economic Events

▌U.S. Stocks Closed with Three Major Stock Indexes down Collectively

On August 31, U.S. stocks closed with three major stock indexes down collectively. The Dow Jones index closed down 280.17 points, or 0.88%, to 31510.70; S&P 500 closed down 31.26 points, or 0.78%, to 3954.90; the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 66.93 points, or 0.56%, to 11816.20.