Weekly News Highlights | Tencent Huanhe announces the discontinuation of digital collectibles; Acala, Celer, and others attacked

Organizer: Hu Tao, Chain Catcher

1. Tencent Huanhe Announces Suspension of Digital Collectibles, Users Can Choose to Hold or Request Refund

On August 16, news broke that Tencent Huanhe announced a business adjustment based on the company's focus on core strategies. Starting from August 16, 2022, Huanhe will stop issuing digital collectibles, and all users who have purchased digital collectibles through its platform can choose to continue holding or initiate a refund request. According to Tencent insiders, this adjustment does not involve team layoffs. (Source link)

2. Ethereum Merge Mainnet TTD Confirmed, Expected to Occur on September 15

On August 19, news emerged that crypto KOL Gucci.eth tweeted that the latest Ethereum core developer meeting confirmed the Ethereum merge mainnet TTD as 58750000000000000000000 (transitioning to PoS network), consistent with previous estimates, "This means the Ethereum merge will officially go live around September 15." Additionally, according to totaldifficulty.com estimates, the merge is expected to occur at 12:29 on September 15. (Source link)

3. Lido: Layer 2 Plan to Prioritize Support for Arbitrum and Optimism, wstETH Bridge Contract Under External Audit

On August 16, news reported that the liquid staking protocol Lido Finance updated its Layer 2 plan to first support Arbitrum and Optimism (allowing wstETH bridging). The bridging contracts for Optimism and Arbitrum were developed by Lido's core development team and have undergone external audits, with all smart contracts now deployed. After a public audit of the governance bridging contract, a Snapshot vote will be initiated for DAO approval.

It is reported that Arbitrum and Optimism were selected by Lido based on various parameters, including DeFi activity, TVL, technical difficulty of bridging assets, network security track record, and Lido's long-term partnerships on the aforementioned networks. (Source link)

4. Tribe DAO Proposes to Shut Down Protocol and Distribute Remaining Assets of Approximately $157 Million to TRIBE Holders and Rari Hack Victims

On August 20, news emerged that Tribe DAO proposed a plan to shut down its protocol operations. This is a redemption plan of approximately $157 million, distributing the remaining assets controlled by the DAO to TRIBE holders and compensating victims of the Rari hack that occurred in April. Any approval will need to be conducted through a DAO vote by token holders in the future.

The redemption proposal will use the team's 88.9 million unallocated TRIBE tokens to compensate the hack victims, which will distribute about $16 million to the victims. For TRIBE holders, the total assets controlled by the DAO amount to approximately $141 million, which will be distributed proportionally. It is reported that on April 30, Rari Capital's liquidity pool was attacked, resulting in a loss of approximately $80 million. (Source link)

5. Cross-Chain Bridge Celer Urges Users to Revoke Authorization for Some Tokens, Will Compensate All Users Affected by DNS Attack

On August 19, news reported that the cross-chain bridge Celer released details of the DNS attack investigation, which targeted third-party DNS providers/ISPs outside the project's own controlled domain. Celer urged users to revoke authorization for some tokens, as failure to do so could deplete all approved token amounts.

Additionally, the Celer team stated that the smart contracts were not affected, the Celer DNS root records were not compromised, and have never been modified, with the cBridge frontend set to restore soon. The team will fully compensate affected users and strongly recommends that users enable the Secure DNS option in their web browsers to reduce the likelihood of being affected. (Source link)

6. Acala Updates On-Chain Tracking Results of aUSD Abnormal Minting Incident, 3.022 Billion aUSD Claimed by 16 Addresses

On August 17, news reported that Acala updated the on-chain tracking results of the aUSD abnormal minting incident, with 3.022 billion aUSD claimed by 16 addresses. Acala's referendum #21 destroyed 1.292 billion aUSD. After the incident, 1.682 billion aUSD from the iBTC/aUSD LP tokens remained on the 16 Acala addresses, while other tokens obtained from the incident, such as iBTC, ACA, and DOT, are still retained on these 16 Acala addresses. One address claimed to have 2.9 billion aUSD minted tokens and has already destroyed 1.267 billion. Subsequently, Acala will release a series of tracking reports to identify transaction activities related to the aUSD minting error on Acala, detailing the transaction tracking of each of the 16 identified addresses. The community can use info&script to verify on-chain data and propose solutions to the aUSD abnormal minting incident. (Source link)

7. Voyager Sells All Stake in Crypto Platform Coinify for $2 Million to Ascension ApS

On August 18, news reported that crypto lending company Voyager announced the sale of its entire stake in the cryptocurrency platform Coinify to Ascension ApS for $2 million in cash. If Ascension ApS subsequently sells Coinify within three years of the transaction, additional conditional profit payments are stipulated, allowing Voyager to retain potential upside.

It is reported that Coinify is a cryptocurrency platform operating in Europe, Asia, and other regions, providing individual and corporate cryptocurrency trading, crypto payment processing services, and enterprise solutions through the Coinify API. Voyager acquired Coinify for $84 million in August 2021. On August 16, 2022, the sale plan for Coinify was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. (prnewswire)

8. NFT Fragmentation Protocol Tessera Completes $20 Million Financing, Led by Paradigm

On August 18, news reported that the NFT fragmentation protocol Fractional announced its rebranding to Tessera and has completed a $20 million Series A financing, led by Paradigm, with participation from Uniswap Labs Ventures, Focus Labs, eGirl Capital, Yunt Capital, and others. Tessera plans to launch its v2 platform before October. Additionally, Tessera will explore Layer 2 scaling solutions to reduce transaction costs. (Decrypt)

9. Canaan Technology Reports Q2 Revenue of 1.65 Billion Yuan, Gross Profit of 929.7 Million Yuan

On August 18, news reported that Canaan Technology released its financial report for Q2 2022. The report showed that Canaan Technology recorded revenue of 1.65 billion yuan in this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 52.8% and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 21.9%. The year-on-year revenue growth was mainly due to the increase in the average selling price per T of computing power, while the quarter-on-quarter growth was mainly due to the increase in total computing power sold.

In Q2 2022, Canaan Technology's gross profit was 929.7 million yuan (approximately $138.8 million), a quarter-on-quarter increase of 12% and a year-on-year increase of 117.3%. The total computing power sold was 5.484 million TH/s, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 27.5% compared to Q1 2022, and a year-on-year decrease of 7.7% compared to Q2 2021. Operating costs increased from 526.3 million yuan in Q1 2022 and 653.9 million yuan in the same period last year to 722.9 million yuan (approximately $107.9 million), with quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year increases of 37.4% and 10.6%, respectively. (Source link)

10. Uniswap Community Passes "Fee Switch Pilot" Proposal, Will Launch 3 ETH Trading Pair Pilot

On August 15, news reported that Uniswap's "fee switch pilot" proposal opened for consensus check voting on August 5 and ended on the 10th, with a nearly 100% approval rate. The pilot sets the fee parameters for trading pairs to 1/10, including DAI-ETH-0.05%, ETH-USDT-0.3%, USDC-ETH-1%. All accrued value will be retained in the protocol until governance votes agree on the best use of the funds.

It is reported that previously, Uniswap community member Leighton initiated a proposal regarding the opening of the "fee switch" in the governance forum, pointing out that opening the fee switch not only means that UNI holders can receive part of the income but also allows the income to be used for protocol development. (Source link)

11. Web3 Identity Protocol .bit Completes $13 Million Series A Financing, Led by HashKey Capital

On August 15, news reported that the Web3 identity protocol .bit completed $13 million in Series A financing, led by CMB International, HashKey Capital, QingSong Fund, GSR Ventures, GGV Capital, and SNZ.

It is reported that to date, over 38,000 independent addresses have registered more than 110,000 .bit accounts, with nearly 100 wallets and DApps integrated with .bit. The team also stated that it will launch NameDAO to improve cultural diversity in Web3 and will provide part of the protocol's revenue, in addition to launching sub-account features. (Source link)

12. Dragonfly Acquires Cryptocurrency Hedge Fund MetaStable Capital

On August 15, news reported that cryptocurrency venture capital firm Dragonfly acquired the cryptocurrency hedge fund MetaStable Capital. As of July 31, MetaStable Capital had over $400 million in assets under management, and Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi was also a general partner at MetaStable. Additionally, reports indicate that Dragonfly will adopt a new logo and remove "Capital" from its name. (Source link)

13. Crypto Venture Firm CoinFund Launches $300 Million New Fund Focused on Early-Stage Companies in Web3 and Cryptocurrency

On August 17, news reported that crypto venture firm CoinFund launched a $300 million fund, CoinFund Ventures I, focused on early-stage companies at the intersection of Web3, cryptocurrency, and other blockchain sub-industries. The new fund is jointly funded by institutional investors, family offices, and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs. Previously, CoinFund has supported early-stage companies such as Layer 1 blockchain Solana, web3 indexing protocol The Graph, and blockchain infrastructure company Blockdaemon. (The Block)

14. LD Capital Establishes Distributed Fund LD Capital X, Will Invest $200 Million Annually in Web3 Entrepreneurs in Collaboration with GPs

On August 15, news reported that LD Capital announced the establishment of a distributed fund, LD Capital X, which will collaborate with 20 GP investment partners to invest $200 million annually in the market. LD Capital X will adopt a distributed, transparent, and open fund model to collaborate with high-quality GPs and LPs, supporting more Web3 entrepreneurs.

The fund's collaboration with institutional investors and investment GPs is designed for co-investment and shared returns, participating in every aspect from finding quality projects and entrepreneurs to investment and post-investment management. It is reported that LD Capital is an active crypto fund in both primary and secondary markets, with its sub-funds including dedicated ecological funds, FoFs, hedge funds, and Meta Funds. LD Capital has invested in over 300 blockchain projects in the past six years. (Source link)

15. Chain Game Player Psychology AI Analysis Company Solsten Completes $21.8 Million Series B Financing, Led by Konvoy

On August 19, news reported that the chain game player psychology AI analysis startup Solsten announced the completion of $21.8 million in Series B financing, led by Konvoy, with participation from Inventure, GFR Fund, Sisu Game Ventures, and the Bascom Ventures fund from the University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni, as well as Galaxy Interactive, Dentsu Ventures, and blockchain private equity investment firm Warburg Serres.
Solsten primarily helps game development companies create more vivid and engaging digital experiences by analyzing player psychology, with clients including blockchain game Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis, chain game studio Mythical Games, and Super Evil Megacorp, Starbreeze, Tilting Point, and Wooga. (Source link)

16. Galaxy Digital Terminates Acquisition of Cryptocurrency Custodian BitGo

On August 15, news reported that cryptocurrency financial services company Galaxy Digital announced the termination of its acquisition of cryptocurrency custodian BitGo. Galaxy Digital stated that the termination was due to BitGo's failure to deliver audited financial statements for 2021 that met the agreement requirements by July 31, 2022.

Galaxy Digital announced the $1.2 billion acquisition of BitGo for $265 million in cash and 33.8 million shares of Galaxy Digital stock on May 5, 2021, but in March of this year, Galaxy Digital indicated during an earnings call that it had renegotiated the terms of the acquisition of the cryptocurrency custodian BitGo. (Source link)