Original author:Huma,Crypto KOL

Original compilation: Felix, PANews

DWF Labs has become controversial again recently. At the Web3 Connect forum held during Token 2049, four market makers, DWF Labs, GSR, Wintermute and OKX, discussed on the same stage. In the event photos shared by the market maker GSR, DWF Labs was linked to Photo culling by Andrei Grachev.

GSR-related accounts stated on the X platform that DWF Labs is absolutely not qualified to join the group discussion and that being in the same room with DWF Labs is an insult to GSR, Wintermute and OKX. Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy liked the post.

In response, Andrei Grachev, co-founder of DWF Labs, responded: I never thought you would be so afraid of us. Yes, we are better than you in technology, transactions, business development, etc. You actually started to cooperate with competitors, and... Complain like a child and denigrate us. Okay but our market making service is great and we will eat your market share like cake and there is nothing you can do about it. Will see it in my mailbox soon your resume”.

This is not the first time that DWF Labs has stirred things. Previously The BlockBreak the newsSays DWF Labs’ multi-million dollar investment in crypto startups shouldn’t be called an “investment” and is more appropriately treated as an over-the-counter transaction. DWF Labs’ “investment + market making” composite operating model has aroused heated discussion in the crypto community. DWF believes that Wintermute instructed TheBlock to smear itself because Wintermute’s founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy is a board member and shareholder of The Block.

Recently, the history of DWF Labs and Andrei Grachev reviewed by crypto KOL Huma seems to have been unveiled as a “fig leaf”.

DWF Labs Starting the Bottom

DWF Labs, a year ago was unknown in the crypto space, but now they are at the center of the crypto stage. They call themselves a market making and investment company. Where did DWF Labs come from? Who is the founder Andrei Grachev and the team members? In the following, I hope to present in an objective manner all the information gathered so far.

Andrei Grachev’s past

Andrei Grachev emerged in the Russian crypto community around 2017. Before that, he worked in the logistics industry, far away from the tech world. He was the founder of several logistics companies, all of which are now closed. In the cryptocurrency community, he introduces himself asCrypsis Blockchain Holdingof successful traders and partners.

Additionally, Grachev served as RACIB Vice President in 2018. RACIB is a non-profit organization closely associated with a state-owned bank called VEB (Foreign Economic Bank), and their main goal is to promote cryptocurrency regulation in Russia. In 2019, Grachev became the head of Huobi Russia. His partner at RACIB is Vladimir Demin, who also succeeded Grachev as head of Huobi Russia. Vladimir Demin is also a senior manager at VEB Ventures, the venture fund of a major Russian state bank. Demin and Grachev later co-foundedVRM.trade(Predecessor of DWF Labs).

Grachev also leads a group calledhttp://Export.onlineA questionable project that originally planned to launch 1C0, but had to cancel due to the bear market in 2018. Some project investors reported that Grachev misappropriated approximately $157,000 of their investments. According to LinkedIn profiles, Andrei Grachev is the CEO of the organization and Vladimir Perov is the Chief Technology Officer. Vladimir Perov now also works at DWF Labs.

Additionally, according to the forklog article referenced above, the owner of a company called DAS Index accused Grachev of failing to repay his $10,000 debt in 2019, by which time Grachev had become the head of Huobi’s Russian branch.

VRM.trade

Demin and Grachev co-founded a company calledVRM.tradeof high-frequency trading companies. Its unclear exactly what they are doing and how large it is. They claim a daily trading volume of $10-20 billion. Grachev on VRM hereAMA. and my self at that timeReport。

VRM team members (same source as above):

Zac Zou now also works at DWF Labs. Additionally, Zac Zou is the founder of HTR Trade. VRM co-invested in HTR Trade along with LD Capital. The VRM team has also created its own OTC platform calledBlack Ocean。

Below is a list of VRM’s partners, which also includeLD Capital, YBB, and AKG Ventures are three Chinese-backed investment institutions.

FLY (Franklin Token)

FLY is the native token of Black Ocean exchange.white paperCan be found here. According to CoinGecko data, FLY’s price has been falling since the beginning and now has a market capitalization of $350,000.

Interestingly, theirXandMedium Account appears to still be active:

DWF Labs

So where does DWF Labs suddenly come from? DWF is the renamed version of VRM. VRM Trade’s last tweet was on May 31, 2022, while the DWF Labs domainregisterOn May 30, 2022. Is there any specific reason for the rebrand? Still unknown.

On March 20, 2023, DWF Labs sent $7.5 million in USDT to a wallet labeled “AyeletNoff” on OpenSeatransfer$163,000. Ayelet Noff is from PR agency SlicedBrandFounder and CEO: Is the money meant to get DWF more media attention, or to help market the projects DWF is investing in? This is still up for debate.

in conclusion

This concludes our investigation into the history of DWF Labs. The author does not form any opinion on these matters and wishes only to provide this information objectively.

Related Reading:Interview with DWF Labs: We don’t manipulate anything