If you are a cryptocurrency investor, you may be very familiar with some well-known investment funds such as a16z, Coinbase Ventures, Binance Labs, Paradigm, Multicoin, etc. However, there is a fund that has recently emerged. A relatively new but extremely active investment fund in the cryptocurrency market is DWF Labs. So, what is DWF Labs? Let's find out together in the following article.
What is DWF Labs?
DWF Labs is an investment fund founded by global cryptocurrency exchange Digital Wave Finance (DWF), with offices in several countries such as Singapore, Switzerland, British Virgin Islands, United Arab Emirates, South Korea and Hong Kong.
DWF Labs focuses on investing in Web3-related companies and projects, providing services such as financing, consulting, liquidity, network security, smart contract auditing, etc. Although it is considered an investment fund in the field of cryptocurrency projects, DWF Labs operates similarly to an over-the-counter trading company. This investment fund usually invests in tokenized cryptocurrency projects by purchasing millions of tokens at a discount price below the market price.
DWF Labs’ Investment Strategy
On its official website, DWF Labs stated that they will invest in an average of 5 projects per month regardless of market conditions. In most cases, DWF does not usually participate in specific venture capital rounds, but invests in projects by reaching an agreement with both parties to purchase over-the-counter tokens at a discounted price.
According to Grachev, the media representative of DWF Labs, the fund focuses on investing in five areas: traditional finance (TradFi), decentralized finance (DeFi), game finance (GameFi), centralized exchanges (CEX) and artificial intelligence (AI). Grachev also said that before confirming the investment, DWF Labs will first fact-check the basic information of the project, and then analysts will conduct a deeper due diligence. After a comprehensive evaluation, projects that perform well will receive investment from the fund.
management team
The DWF Labs development team is not very well-known in the cryptocurrency community, as most of its members are not well-known in the field. However, Andrei Grachev, the aforementioned management member and the only media representative of DWF Labs, currently has a "shady past."
Since 2018, many cryptocurrency websites have accused Grachev of many frauds in the market, such as raising funds through ICOs but not launching projects. Grachev is also believed to be associated with OneCoin, a Ponzi scheme project that was popular in 2018 and once defrauded investors of billions of dollars.
In addition, there are two other well-known members of the DWF Labs team:
Li Hengyu: joined DWF Labs in May 2022. He worked at JPMorgan Chase and later founded a cybersecurity and intelligence company in Singapore called GROUP 8, which is supported by senior experts in fields such as artificial intelligence, information security and defense industry.
Zou Zhe: Joined DWF Labs in June 2022 and previously worked at China Harbour Engineering Company. He joined OKX in August 2018 as a regional sales manager, focusing on the Vietnam, India and Russia markets.
The team composition of DWF Labs is as described above.
Currently, the fund’s portfolio includes 104 projects, covering almost all Web3 fields. Some of the outstanding projects invested by DWF Labs include:
Fetch.ai
On March 29, 2023, Fetch.ai announced that it had received a $40 million investment from DWF Labs to support the development and collaboration of autonomous agents, network infrastructure, and distributed machine learning on the Fetch.ai platform.
Synthetix
On March 17, 2023, Synthetix announced that DWF Labs purchased $15 million in SNX tokens. According to official information released by DWF Labs, the investment fund has reached an agreement with Synthetix to provide liquidity and market making services for the project on centralized and decentralized trading platforms.
Flare Network
On March 2, 2023, DWF Labs announced an investment in Flare, a first-tier EVM-compatible blockchain. The specific investment amount was not disclosed.
Yield Guild Games
On February 17, 2023, Tech in Asia reported that the game DAO Yield Guild Games raised $13.8 million through the YGG token sale, led by DWF Labs and a16z. Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games, revealed that the project will use the funds for further development in the future. YGG tokens fluctuated sharply in August 2023 after news that DWF Labs deposited funds in Binance.
Mask Network
On January 19, 2023, DWF Labs announced an investment and strategic partnership with Mask Network by purchasing $5 million in MASK tokens. The funds will be used to support Mask Network to continue building the Web3 social network ecosystem.
In addition to the above projects, DWF Labs has also invested in some other well-known projects, such as Me, Confused, TON, Radix, etc.
Summarize
Through this article, you have learned about the investment fund DWF Labs and their portfolio profile. I hope that through this article you can add new knowledge to make the most informed investment decisions. I wish you a smooth investment!
