Weekly Highlights | Facebook and Instagram now support displaying NFTs; Arbitrum One mainnet has migrated to Nitro

Organizer: Runsheng, Chain Catcher

Important News

1. Meta Officially Supports Displaying NFTs on Facebook and Instagram

On August 30, Meta announced that it now supports displaying NFTs on Facebook, allowing users to connect their personal digital wallets to the app to showcase their NFTs.

Meta currently supports Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow NFTs on Facebook and Instagram. For crypto wallets, users can connect MetaMask, Rainbow, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, and Dapper to verify and share NFTs. (Source link)

2. El Salvador to Invest $203 Million in Bitcoin Beach Infrastructure

On August 31, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele stated that the government will invest over $203 million in infrastructure for El Zonte Bitcoin Beach, including new drainage systems, bridges, and bike lanes. The Salvadoran government believes that Bitcoin is crucial for the country's tourism growth, which has now recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

Previously, on January 17, El Salvador announced plans to develop El Zonte Bitcoin Beach as a global surfing and tourism destination. It is reported that visitors and businesses in the area have established a circular economy using Bitcoin. (Bitcoin.com)

3. a16z Crypto Division to Release Free Licensing System to Help Establish Industry Standards for NFTs

On August 31, a16z's crypto division announced it is preparing to release a free licensing system, hoping to provide a range of free licensing options reviewed by lawyers in a manner similar to Creative Commons, to help establish some industry standards for how NFTs can be used.

a16z's General Counsel Miles Jennings stated that people are taking various approaches, and greater standardization across the industry will help unlock its economic potential.

All six licenses are available on 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 deployment to Arweave. (Source link)

4. Crypto.com Exits $495 Million Sponsorship Deal with UEFA Champions League

On September 1, Crypto.com withdrew from a large sponsorship agreement with the UEFA Champions League. This sponsorship lasted for five seasons, costing Crypto.com about €100 million per season, or $99 million annually, totaling $495 million. Although the contract with Crypto.com has been terminated, UEFA is currently negotiating with companies such as Lays, Heineken, Mastercard, FedEx, and PlayStation.

It is reported that before negotiating with Crypto.com, UEFA had sponsorship from Gazprom. After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, UEFA canceled this deal in March. The Crypto.com website was later designated to replace Gazprom. (Source link)

5. Arbitrum One Mainnet Announces Migration to Nitro, Throughput Increased by 7-10 Times

On September 1, Arbitrum One Mainnet announced it has migrated to Nitro, resulting in a 7-10 times increase in throughput; advanced call data compression further reduces Arbitrum's transaction costs; Ethereum L1 gas compatibility aligns the pricing and accounting of EVM operations completely with Ethereum; it supports L1 interoperability, synchronization of L1 block numbers, and all Ethereum L1 precompiles; and eliminates failure modes that prevent the creation of retriable tickets; as well as broader debugging support through Geth. (Source link)

6. Meitu Reports Over 300 Million RMB in Cryptocurrency Impairment in H1 2022

On September 1, Meitu released its unaudited half-year report for 2022, showing that it achieved operating revenue of 972 million RMB in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%, with a net loss of 266 million RMB, a year-on-year increase of 106%, including a cryptocurrency impairment of 305 million RMB, a year-on-year increase of 172%. (Source link)

7. Sudoswap Announces Governance Token SUDO Distribution: Initial Supply of 60 Million, 41.9% Allocated to XMON Holders

On September 2, Sudoswap outlined the distribution plan for the governance token SUDO of the sudoAMM protocol, with an initial supply of 60 million SUDO, of which 25.12 million (41.9%) is allocated to XMON holders; 900,000 (1.5%) to 0xmons NFT holders; 900,000 (1.5%) for retrospective LP airdrop; 15.08 million (25.1%) to the Treasury; 9 million (1-year full lockup, 3-year vesting) to the initial team; and 9 million (1-year full lockup, 3-year vesting) to SudoRandom Labs. Sudoswap stated that the SUDO token has not yet been deployed.

Regarding the token allocation for XMON holders, they can participate in a lockdrop event to receive SUDO tokens, where XMON tokens will be locked for 3 months and can be withdrawn afterward, with the allocated SUDO proportional to the amount of locked XMON, earning 10,000 SUDO for each locked XMON.

Additionally, for the retrospective airdrop allocated to sudoAMM liquidity providers (limited to trading pools), the snapshot block is 15455555 (September 2, 6:42 AM Beijing time). (Source link)

8. Social Media Giant Snap Cuts Web3 Team

On September 2, Jake Sheinman, co-founder of Snap's Web3 team, revealed the company's layoff plans in a tweet announcing his departure: due to company restructuring, we have decided to terminate our Web3 team. Snap's revenue for the second quarter was $1.11 billion, a 13% increase year-on-year, but far below the company's previous forecast of 20%-25% and below analyst expectations. Previously, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel revealed that Snap would lay off 20% of its workforce. (Source link)

9. FIFA to Launch NFT Platform on Algorand Ahead of World Cup

On September 3, FIFA announced that it will launch an NFT platform called FIFA+ Collect for football-themed digital collectibles in late September, featuring "affordable, inclusive, and accessible" NFTs depicting famous football moments, art, and images. With the World Cup set to kick off in late November in Qatar, exciting moments from this grand global football championship may also be transformed into digital collectibles. (Decrypt)

10. Poolin Founder: Withdrawal Difficulties Due to Lack of Liquidity, Solutions to Be Proposed Soon

On September 4, Poolin founder and CEO Pan Zhibiao responded on social media to the recent "withdrawal difficulties," stating that the situation is due to a lack of liquidity, assuring that funds are safe, and that Poolin's net assets are positive. He mentioned that possible solutions, including liquidity debt, debt-for-mining machine swaps, and debt-for-equity swaps, will be proposed soon.

11. Yao Qian Co-Publishes "Web 3.0: Changes and Challenges of the Next Generation Internet"

On September 2, Yao Qian co-published the book "Web 3.0: Changes and Challenges of the Next Generation Internet," with other authors including Chen Yongwei, head of the research department of "Comparative" magazine, and Zou Chuanwei, chief economist of Wanxiang Blockchain. The book covers a range of topics in the blockchain field, such as DAO, DeFi, NFT, GameFi, SocialFi, and X-to-Earn. In the preface, Yao Qian stated, "Web 3.0 innovation has become a highly focused and valued development direction for various countries," and studying it "is of great significance for the development of China's internet infrastructure and related industries."

It is reported that Yao Qian was the first director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and was named one of the most influential figures in the blockchain field by Coindesk in 2017. (Source link)

Important Financing/Venture Capital News

1. NFT Project DigiDaigaku's Parent Company Completes $200 Million Financing in Two Rounds, Led by Paradigm and Others

On August 29, NFT project DigiDaigaku's parent company Limit Break raised $200 million through two rounds of financing, led by Josh Buckley, Paradigm, and Standard Crypto, with participation from FTX, Coinbase, Positive Sum, Shervinator, and Anthos Capital.

It is reported that the new funds will be used to develop a Web 3 MMO game. Limit Break's founder introduced a new model called "Free to Own" (F2O), which is based on free minting of genesis NFTs. These genesis NFTs will produce other NFT series through airdrops and more, without involving fundraising. (Source link)

2. Bloomberg: Temasek to Lead $100 Million Financing Round for Animoca Brands

On August 30, Bloomberg reported, citing insiders, that Temasek will lead a new $100 million financing round for Animoca Brands through convertible bonds, which will supplement the $359 million financing announced by Animoca Brands in January this year.

Previously, Chain Catcher reported on July 12 that Animoca Brands completed a $75 million financing round at a pre-money valuation of $5.9 billion, with participation from Liberty City Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Alpha Wave Ventures, 10T, SG Spring Limited Partnership Fund, Generation Highway Ltd, Cosmic Summit Investments Limited, and others. (Source link)

3. Web3 Game Developer Xterio Completes $40 Million Financing, Led by FunPlus and FTX Ventures

On August 30, Web3 game developer Xterio completed $40 million in financing through a SAFT sale at a $300 million valuation, led by FunPlus, Makers Fund, FTX Ventures, and XPLA, with participation from Animoca Brands, HashKey, Foresight Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto, and Matrix Partners.

It is reported that Xterio is a global cross-platform game developer and publisher dedicated to allowing users to deeply engage in the gaming world through digital ownership, focusing on developing a Web3 native universe and expanding to all media and platforms. Xterio's CTO is FunPlus co-founder Guan Yitao. This round of financing will be used to develop and publish Web3 games and expand its team. Xterio expects to release multiple mobile and web games in the coming quarters. (The Block)

4. Former Galaxy Digital Executives Raising $500 Million to Launch New Crypto Fund

On August 30, AXIOS reported that a document disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that several former Galaxy Digital and Genesis Trading executives are planning to launch a new $500 million crypto fund named "DBA CryptoFund." As of now, the related general partners of the fund have declined to comment on the new fund matters. (AXIOS)

5. Proof, Parent Company of Moonbirds, Completes $50 Million Series A Financing, Led by a16z

On August 31, Proof, the parent company of Moonbirds, announced the completion of a $50 million Series A financing round, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Collab+Currency, Flamingo DAO, SVAngel, Vayner Fund, and Seven Seven Six. Proof was co-founded by Digg founder Kevin Rose, who revealed that Proof is developing a utility token for its community and plans to fully disclose the token plan in the first quarter of 2023. However, details are scarce, and it is unclear whether it will follow the ApeCoin model.

Additionally, Proof plans to launch a Moonbirds derivative series called Moonbirds Mythics, which will cover 20,000 NFTs and is set to launch in early 2023. Mythics is the third NFT project launched by Proof, following Moonbirds and Oddities. (Decrypt)

6. Crypto Live Streaming Platform Stacked Completes $12.9 Million Series A Financing, Led by Pantera Capital

On August 31, The Block reported that crypto live streaming platform Stacked completed $12.9 million in Series A financing, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Z Venture Capital and GFR Fund. The funds raised will be used for investment, marketing, content acquisition, and recruitment.

It is reported that creators can upload gaming content, host live events, and chat with fans on the Stacked platform, and in return, they will receive Stacked governance tokens, which correspond to their contributions as creators while allowing them to gain ownership of the platform. (Source link)