Finance

Cryptocurrency platform Poly Network was hit with a major attack last week which saw the hacker, or hackers, make off with more than $600 million worth of tokens.
In a bizarre twist, the hacker has now returned most of the stolen money but is withholding more than $200 million of the funds until “everyone is ready.”
Poly Network promised the hacker a $500,000 bounty for the restoration of user funds, and even invited them to become its “chief security advisor.”

The Poly Network logo displayed on a phone screen with a physical representation of some cryptocurrencies.
Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto via Getty Images

The cryptocurrency platform targeted in a massive heist is now inviting the hacker behind it to become an advisor to the firm, and promising a $500,000 reward for the restoration of user funds.
Poly Network, a so-called decentralized finance or “DeFi” project, was hit with a major attack last week which saw the hacker, or hackers, make off with more than $600 million worth of tokens.

Poly Network lets users swap tokens from one digital ledger to another. Someone exploited a flaw in Poly Network’s code which allowed them to transfer the assets to their own crypto wallets.
It is thought to be the largest crypto heist of all time, surpassing the $534.8 million in digital coins stolen from Japanese exchange Coincheck in a 2018 attack and the estimated $450 million worth of bitcoin that went missing from Tokyo-based exchange Mt. Gox in 2014.
In Poly Network’s case, the hacker has taken the unusual step of returning most of the stolen money. All but $33 million of the crypto has now been returned.

However, more than $200 million of the funds is currently locked in an account that requires passwords from Poly Network and the hacker to gain access.
Poly Network has pleaded with the hacker, who it is calling “Mr. White Hat,” to provide the password — known as a “private key” — necessary to retrieve the money.

“Mr. White Hat” is a reference to ethical hackers who search for vulnerabilities in organizations’ systems that could expose them to attacks. Security researchers have questioned the labeling of the Poly Network attacker as a white hat hacker.
It’s not clear why the hacker is withholding access to the final tranche of assets. An anonymous person claiming to be the hacker has simply said they will provide the key once “everyone is ready.”
Last week, it was revealed that Poly Network had offered a $500,000 “bug bounty” to send all of the money back. Such bounties are typically rewarded to people who report bugs to help companies find and resolve flaws before they are disclosed to the general public.
The hacker initially turned down the bounty offer. However, in a message embedded in a digital currency transaction Monday, the hacker said “I am considering taking the bounty as a bonus for public hackers if they can hack the Poly Network.”

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Poly Network said Tuesday that it hoped to implement a “significant system upgrade” to prevent such an attack from happening again in future, but that it couldn’t do so until all the remaining assets are returned.
The group said its promise to reward “Mr. White Hat” with a $500,000 bounty still stands, and even invited the hacker to becomes its “chief security advisor.”

“To extend our thanks and encourage Mr. White Hat to continue contributing to security advancement in the blockchain world together with Poly Network, we cordially invite Mr. White Hat to be the Chief Security Advisor of Poly Network,” the firm said in a statement.
“Poly Network previously promised to reward Mr. White Hat with a $500,000 bug bounty, but he did not accept it and has publicly stated that he has considered offering it to the technical community who have made contributions to blockchain security,” Poly Network added.
“We fully respect Mr. White Hat’s thoughts, and to express our gratitude, we will still transfer this $500,000 bounty to a wallet address approved by Mr. White Hat for him to use it at his own discretion for the cause of cybersecurity and supporting more projects and individuals.”
Poly Network said it “has no intention of holding Mr. White Hat legally responsible” for the hack.

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Dow futures slipped slightly in overnight trading on Tuesday after the 30-stock average snapped a 5-day winning streak in the regular session.
Dow futures fell 50 points. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 0.15%.

On Tuesday, the major averages dipped following a decline in retail sales. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 282 points, dragged down by a 4.3% drop in Home Depot’s stock. The average had its first negative day in 5.
The S&P 500 also slipped 0.7% for its worst day since July 19. The Nasdaq Composite was the relative underperformer, dropping 0.9% as Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google-parent Alphabet all closed lower.

The Census Bureau said Tuesday that retail sales fell 1.1% in June, driven largely by a drop in car sales. Economists expected retail sales to fall by 0.3% in July, compared to a revised 0.7% gain in June, according to Dow Jones consensus forecast.
Excluding autos, sales were down 0.4% compared to estimates of a 0.2% slowdown.
The small cap benchmark Russell 2000 dropped 1.2% on Tuesday.

“The stock market is way overdue for a correction, Covid cases continue to spike higher darkening economic reopenings, consumer data shockingly has collapsed recently — including consumer confidence last Friday and retail sales and homebuilders’ sentiment today — several stocks have stopped reacting positively to good earnings, inflation reports remain hot, and Federal Reserve taper talk is everywhere,” Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group, said.
Earnings season continues on Wednesday with Target and Lowe’s reporting before the bell. Cisco Systems and Nvidia report after the bell.
Stock trading app Robinhood releases its first earnings report as a public company on Wednesday after the bell.
The Federal Open Market Committee publishes its meeting minutes from its July meeting on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET. Markets participants will be looking for clues about the central bank’s stance on inflation and when it could suspend it bond buying program.

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Bill Ackman’s SPAC was hit with a lawsuit that alleged the blank-check company promised “staggering compensation” to directors..
Pershing’s spokesperson denied the allegations, saying the lawsuit is “totally without merit.”

Bill Ackman’s troubled SPAC was hit with a lawsuit Tuesday alleging the blank-check company promised “staggering compensation” to directors and asking that the entity’s special status be revoked.
The plaintiff’s lawyers — former Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner Robert Jackson and Yale law professor John Morley — claim that Pershing Square Tontine Holdings isn’t an operating company at all. Instead, they say, Ackman’s SPAC is an investment firm, just like his hedge funds. They say the SPAC should adhere to the Investment Company Act of 1940.

“By telling the world that PSTH is not an ‘Investment Company’ as that term is defined in the ICA, Defendants have structured PSTH so as to charge its public investors what amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation,” the lawsuit said.
“Under the ICA and [Investment Advisers Act of 1940], the form and amount of this compensation are illegal,” it said.
The Investment Company Act and the Investment Advisers Act are the primary laws governing investment companies and investment advisers, and they give the Securities and Exchange Commission the power to regulate these entities.
SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are shell corporations listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company and taking the company public.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, took issue with the compensation that the SPAC’s directors would have received from repurchasing warrants. Warrants are a deal sweetener that gives investors the right to buy a share of stock at a certain price before a certain time.

“The Company agreed to repurchase some of those warrants at a valuation that implied the warrants were worth, in the aggregate, more than $880 million — thirteen times what the Sponsor and Director Defendants originally paid for them,” the lawsuit said.
“This staggering compensation was promised at a time when the returns to the Company’s public investors have starkly underperformed the rest of the stock market. That is hardly the arms’-length bargain the ICA and IAA demand,” the case filing said.
Pershing has said that Ackman had waived his right to compensation in the now-scrapped deal to buy 10% of Vivendi’s flagship Universal Music Group, and has noted that the billionaire eventually pulled the deal in July, citing concern from the SEC.
The Universal Music deal would have left $1.5 billion in residual cash in Ackman’s SPAC and given investors warrants in a new vehicle that would pursue another acquisition down the road.
Ackman previously told CNBC that regulators expressed concern that the new entity being created as part of the deal would become an investment company.
A spokesperson at Pershing Square said the complaint bases its allegations, among other things, on the fact that PSTH owns or has owned U.S. Treasurys and money market funds that own Treasurys, as do all other SPACs while they are in the process of seeking an initial business combination.
“PSTH has never held investment securities that would require it to be registered under the Act, and does not intend to do so in the future. We believe this litigation is totally without merit,” the spokesperson said.
The New York Times first reported the lawsuit Tuesday morning.
SPACs are getting hit by a wave of class-action lawsuits as more hyped-up deals turn out to be flops and shares dropped.
Following a record first quarter, the SPAC market came to a screeching halt, with issuance dropping nearly 90% in the second quarter as regulatory pressure mounted.
Correction: This story was revised to correct that the lawsuit alleged that the “staggering compensation” was promised to directors. A previous version misstated the allegation in the lawsuit.
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.

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A Home Depot branded bucket at a Home Depot store in Hercules, California, U.S., on Monday, Feb. 22, 2021.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Home Depot — The home improvement retailer’s shares dropped more than 4% after reporting second-quarter results. Comparable-store sales fell short of forecasts, however, rising 4.5% compared to a StreetAccount consensus estimate of 5%. However, Home Depot earned $4.53 per share, 9 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also topped forecasts.

23andMe — Shares of 23andMe surged over 14% in midday trading after Credit Suisse initiated coverage of the stock with an outperform rating, saying in a note to clients that the company’s database would be hard to match for pharmaceutical research.
Walmart — The big-box retailer’s share price rose about 0.2% after reporting second-quarter earnings that topped analyst estimates. The retailer gained ground in groceries and reported a strong start to the back-to-school season.
Tencent Music — Tencent Music shares dropped roughly 13% after the online music entertainment platform missed on second-quarter revenue expectations. The company reported revenue of 8.01 billion Chinese yuan, compared with the 8.13 billion Chinese yuan analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected.
Endeavor Group Holdings – Shares of the company jumped about 9% after the entertainment group beat bottom-line estimates during the second quarter. Endeavor posted a profit of 19 cents on an adjusted basis, while analysts had been expecting a loss of 2 cents per share. Revenue, however, came up slightly short of estimates. The company also lifted its full-year revenue guidance due to growing demand for in-person events.
Roblox – The video game company’s shares slipped nearly 2% after Roblox’s second-quarter bookings came in below expectations. The company reported $665 million for the revenue metric, while analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting $683 million. However, Roblox estimated that daily active users grew 8% from June to July, and bookings grew 10% to 11% in that same period.

Stanley Black & Decker — Shares of the tool maker fell about 3% in midday trading after announcing Tuesday morning that it struck a deal with MTD Holdings, the outdoor power equipment provider, to up its stake in the company for $1.6 billion in cash. Stanley Black & Decker has held a 20% stake in MTD since 2019 and will acquire the remaining 80% it doesn’t already own.
— with reporting from CNBC’s PIppa Stevens, Jesse Pound, Tanaya Macheel and Hannah Miao.

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Cathie WoodSource: CNBCCathie Wood called out Michael Burry on social media after ‘The Big Short’ investor placed a bet against her flagship ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund.”To his credit, Michael Burry made a great call based on fundamentals and recognized the calamity brewing in the housing/mortgage market. I do not believe that he understands the fundamentals that are creating explosive growth and investment opportunities in the innovation space,” Wood tweeted on Tuesday morning.On Monday, regulatory filings spotted by CNBC Pro showed Burry bet against Woods’ ARK Innovation ETF using options. Burry’s Scion Asset Management bought 2,355 put contracts against the red-hot tech ETF during the second quarter and held them through the end of the period. Investors profit from puts when the underlying securities fall in prices. It’s not clear whether Burry’s position is profitable or whether he still holds the short bet.Burry was one of the first investors to call and profit from the subprime mortgage crisis. He was depicted in Michael Lewis’ book “The Big Short” and the subsequent Oscar-winning movie of the same name.Wood made a name for herself after a banner 2020 where ARK Innovation returned nearly 150% as the fund had big holdings in shares like Zoom and Teladoc, which thrived during the pandemic.The ETF ballooned with investors hoping to get a piece of the “disruptive innovation” names that Wood touts on her popular YouTube channel. The fund’s assets under management are now around $22.5 billion, according to FactSet.The hot-handed investor gets much of her attention from a younger demographic that she said appreciates the place innovation has in the world today. Traders on Reddit chat rooms refer to Wood as “Cathie BAE” and “Queen Cathie” and post photos of Wood on a t-shirt that says “In Cathie We Trust.”However, some of Wood’s top holdings are controversial due to their lofty valuations with many making little or no profits.Shares of Wood’s flagship fund, ARK Innovation, hit a bottom in May as investors rotated into value stocks in the first half of 2021 and out of tech shares; however, the ETF ended the second quarter up 9%. Shares of ARK Innovation are still down 6% year-to-date.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsBurry’s filing through the end of last quarter also shows he increased his Tesla put position during the period. Wood is a long-time Tesla bull. The electric carmaker is the No. 1 holding in ARK Innovation, accounting for more than 10% of the entire ETF. Take a look at the rest of Wood’s twitter thread here.”In our view, the seeds for the innovation explosion that @ARKInvest is dedicated to researching were planted during the 20 years ending with the tech and telecom bust. Having gestated for more than 20 years, these technologies should transform the world during the next 10 years,” Wood’s twitter thread continued.”If we are correct, GDP and revenue growth will diminish until the opportunities in nascent technologies begin to move macro needles. In this environment, innovation based strategies should distinguish themselves,” Wood said.”The deflation in commodity prices is cyclical but is adding to the secular forces caused by technologically enabled disruptive innovation (“good deflation”) and creative destruction (“bad deflation”),” Wood’s tweet said.”Since mid May a number of commodity prices have been breaking down: lumber -65-70%, copper -10-15%, oil -10%. An unexpected increase in the dollar also is negative for commodity prices. Now the Mannheim used car index – a leading index for new car sales – is slipping,” said Wood.”Most bears seem to believe that inflation will continue to accelerate, shortening investment time horizons and destroying valuations. Despite what we believe has been a supply-chain related/short term burst in inflation, both equities and bonds have appreciated since March,” Wood concluded.Wood is one of the few investors going against the grain when it comes to inflation. While many market participants are concerned about rising prices, the founder of ARK Invest expects deflation amid a breakdown in commodity prices, gridlock on tax policy in Washington and innovation trends taking off.Scion Asset Management didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.— with reporting from CNBC’s Yun Li.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket:Home Depot (HD) – Shares of the home improvement retailer fell 3.2% in the premarket following its second-quarter results. Home Depot earned $4.53 per share, 9 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also topped forecasts. Comparable-store sales fell short of forecasts, however, rising 4.5% compared to a StreetAccount consensus estimate of 5%.Walmart (WMT) – The retail giant earned $1.78 per share for the second quarter, 21 cents a share above estimates. Revenue came in above consensus as well. Comparable-store sales grew by a better-than-expected 5.2%. Walmart also raised its full-year forecast, but shares slid 1.5% in the premarket.Roblox (RBLX) – The video game platform operator lost 25 cents per share for its latest quarter, one cent a share wider than expected. Revenue also fell short of analysts’ forecasts. Roblox had been a beneficiary of pandemic restrictions that kept people at home, but that positive influence waned as vaccinations increased and people spent more time out of the home. Shares tumbled 5.6% in the premarket.Spirit Airlines (SAVE) – Spirit lost 4.4% in premarket action after the airline said its recent operational problems cost it about $50 million. Spirit canceled more than 2,800 flights between July 30 and August 9, amid problems related to weather, staffing and technical issues.Didi Global (DIDI) – A number of major hedge funds and investors bought shares in the Chinese ride-hailing giant according to quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including George Soros, Tiger Global and Singapore state investment fund Temasek. Didi went public in June, but shares plunged after China announced a probe of the company. Didi fell 2% in the premarket.Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) – The music streaming service’s shares slid 3.8% in the premarket after its quarterly revenue fell short of analysts’ forecasts despite an increase in advertisements and paid subscribers.Organon (OGN) – The Merck (MRK) spin-off rose 1.6% in premarket trading, as Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) reported a small stake in the core therapeutics specialist.T-Mobile (TMUS) – The wireless carrier confirmed earlier reports that it had been the victim of a data breach, but said it could not yet determine the extent of the breach and what customer data may have been stolen.Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) – Cowen added the restaurant chain’s stock to its “conviction” list, saying it was pleased with Chipotle’s second-quarter results and that the company has sales drivers in place that will sustain improvement.Endeavor (EDR) – The entertainment company reported quarterly profit of 19 cents per share, compared to analysts’ expectations of a 2 cents per share loss. Revenue came in very slightly short of estimates. Endeavor also raised its full-year revenue outlook on increasing demand for live events among other factors, and shares added 1.8% in the premarket.Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) – The tool maker struck a deal to buy the 80% of MTD Holdings that it did not already own for $1.6 billion in cash. Stanley Black & Decker had bought a 20% stake in the privately-held outdoor power equipment maker in 2019.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

In this articleETH.CM=BTC.CM=A visual representation of bitcoin.STR | NurPhoto via Getty ImagesLONDON — Bitpanda, a European cryptocurrency trading platform, has raised $263 million in a fresh round of funding valuing the company at $4.1 billion.That’s more than three times the $1.2 billion Bitpanda was worth in its last private financing round five months ago. The latest cash injection brings the company’s total raised to nearly $500 million.The investment was led by Valar Ventures, the venture capital firm co-founded by U.S. tech billionaire Peter Thiel. It’s the third time Valar has backed Bitpanda since its first major funding round, announced in September.”I don’t like to do fundraising,” Eric Demuth, Bitpanda’s CEO and co-founder, told CNBC. “It’s very time-consuming.””When you have partners you have a close connection with, and they have deep pockets, you don’t have to do the whole roadshow,” Demuth said. Valar “wanted to double down and we wanted to stay with them,” he added. “It was quite an easy process.”From left to right, Bitpanda co-founders Christian Trummer, Paul Klanschek and Eric Demuth.BitpandaBritish billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard and REDO Ventures also invested in Bitpanda’s latest round, along with existing investors LeadBlock Partners and Jump Capital.What is Bitpanda?Founded in 2014, Bitpanda is a Vienna-based brokerage firm that lets people buy and sell cryptocurrencies and precious metals. The company also began testing a service this year that lets users trade stocks around the clock.”By the end of the year, I think you’ll have a really good offering for stocks,” Demuth said.Bitpanda is one of many online brokers in Europe attracting growing interest from investors, thanks in part to the “meme stock” trading frenzy. Retail traders piled into unloved stocks like GameStop and AMC, taking inspiration from a popular Reddit forum. That boosted trading volumes at digital platforms such as Robinhood.Bitpanda’s competitors include Revolut, Trade Republic and eToro.One way the company hopes to differentiate from rivals is by licensing its technology to banks and fintech companies. It declined to name any clients but said several big firms were already implementing the system and will be able offer crypto and stock trading in a matter of months.Bitpanda makes its money from the spread between what someone is willing to pay for an asset and the price at which that asset is sold. The start-up has been profitable for five years, Demuth said.Profitability is a rarity in fintech, with many venture-backed companies in the space racking up heavy losses. Revolut, which was last valued at $33 billion, lost £167.8 million ($232.3 million) in 2020, up 57% from a year earlier.Demuth said a number of fintech companies are raising money at lofty valuations out of “hype” and a “fear of missing out.””I’m very skeptical about this,” he said. “Many companies, especially in the fintech area, are purely based on a combination of hype and growth. But the growth is mostly paid, so you have a product that is for free and you are simply buying your customers.”Bitpanda didn’t provide a breakdown of how much money it makes each year, but said revenues were on track to rise sevenfold in 2021. The platform now has more than 3 million users.The firm only operates in Europe, with offices in Vienna, Berlin, London, Paris, Barcelona, Milan and Krakow. It plans to use the money to expand in key markets like France, Spain, Italy and Portugal.Crypto maniaThe boost in Bitpanda’s valuation comes at a time of great momentum for the nascent cryptocurrency industry.Digital currency investors have been on a wild ride this year, with the prices of bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies hitting record highs in April and May before tumbling sharply in the weeks that followed.More recently, bitcoin and smaller digital coin ether have made a strong comeback, pushing the entire crypto market across the $2 trillion mark for the first time in three months.The main headwind for crypto lately has been the threat of regulation. China has cracked down on speculative investing in digital assets, while the recently approved U.S. infrastructure bill includes a provision that crypto advocates say may harm the industry.Europe has been slower to regulate the crypto industry than its global peers, Demuth said. But he is encouraged by new EU rules aimed at bringing the sector under regulatory supervision.”From the drafts I’ve seen so far, it looks like it will not have a bad impact,” he said. “Of course, they can always mess it up at the last minute.”IPO? Anything but a SPACFintech has birthed a number of multibillion-dollar public companies lately, with the likes of Coinbase, Robinhood and Affirm all listing this year. In Europe, Wise — the British fintech formerly known as TransferWise — went public in a rare direct listing in London.Read more about cryptocurrencies from CNBC ProBitcoin just jumped above $47,000 and could be on a straight path to $50,000, analysts sayMajor analysts are talking about Coinbase’s second-quarter earnings. Here’s what they saidFundstrat says bitcoin is headed to $100,000 by year-end as a trading rule kicks inWhile Bitpanda has no immediate plans to go public, Demuth said he “really liked” how Wise listed. Instead of hiring investment banks to underwrite its offering, Wise listed directly on the London market without raising any money.Bitpanda’s CEO insisted nothing has been decided yet, but firmly ruled out merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. SPACs are blank-check companies that list with the aim of taking another company public.”Bad examples of IPO are the SPAC mania,” Demuth said.Last month, U.S. digital currency company Circle said it planned to go public in a $4.5 billion SPAC deal.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More

In this articleNIUThis Niu scooter store in Beijing’s Chaoyang district is open daily from about 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.Evelyn Cheng | CNBCBEIJING — Almost three years since Chinese electric scooter start-up Niu Technologies listed in the U.S., the company has not only turned profitable but has also shaken off losses from the coronavirus pandemic.Niu said Monday that second-quarter revenue in China and abroad rose by 46.5% from a year ago to 944.7 million yuan ($146 million), and forecast growth would retain roughly the same pace — or better — in the third quarter.”We’re seeing the China market really [starting to] pick up in terms of electric scooter consumption,” CEO Yan Li told CNBC’s Martin Soong on “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday. “And then about halfway into the quarter we see our sales have been [picking] up significantly.”The company is also pressing on with a rapid expansion plan. Niu expects to open more than 300 stores in China in the third quarter, after adding 450 stores in the second.Profits on the riseNiu said Monday that with growth of 53.4% in adjusted net income in the second quarter, the company has made 110.6 million yuan ($17.1 million) in the first half of this year.That’s up from 49.1 million yuan in the same period last year — during the height of the pandemic in China — and more than the 68.7 million yuan reported for the period in 2019.The company had reported an adjusted net loss of 46.4 million yuan in the first half of 2018.Niu shares closed 4.6% higher overnight after the earnings release. The stock is down about 20% year-to-date. But it has gained 147% since going public on the Nasdaq in October 2018 and has a market capitalization of $1.7 billion.International shipping challengesOverseas, Niu said it sold 34.8% more scooters in the second quarter than the same period a year ago.But the 6,980 units sold abroad was still a fraction of the 246,018 scooters that Niu said it sold in China, a market where sales also grew far faster, at 58.8% year-on-year.Due to Covid disruptions in global shipping channels, Niu had a backlog of almost 4,000 units it couldn’t ship out in the second quarter, Li said in a call with analysts Monday. That’s according to a StreetAccount transcript.He noted that importers in Europe and the U.S. are waiting for a decline in shipping costs, which have surged from about $150 per scooter to $450 each.Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC ProGoldman Sachs names the electric vehicle makers it likes over next few yearsFisker can rise more than 160% and be a winner in the electric vehicle boom, Morgan Stanley saysJefferies upgrades Tesla, predicts shares to rally 22%, says company is still the innovation leaderWide-ranging growth outlookPartly due to this overseas uncertainty, Niu gave a wide range for its third-quarter forecast, predicting revenue would grow year-on-year by anywhere between 40% to 62%. That’s the equivalent of 1.25 billion yuan to 1.45 billion yuan, a difference equal to about $30.9 million.In the second quarter, the company reported a slight decrease in gross margin that it attributed to higher raw material costs.Management added on Monday’s call that future growth in China this year would vary by region since local governments are taking different approaches to enforcing regulation on electric scooter use. The standards could drive growth from users having to replace their existing scooter models.The call did not discuss China’s recent regulatory crackdown that has focused on technology giants’ monopolistic practices, data protection policies and stock listings in overseas markets.TVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | More