DWF Labs: companies, partners and the link to Digital Wave Finance

analysisDWF Labs was officially launched in September 2022, when Grachev said: "DWF stands for Digital Wave Finance. We represent a new wave in Web3 Venture Capital investment." A DWF Labs press release reprinted on 15 November 2022 described it as a global digital-asset market maker and multi-stage Web3 investment firm with offices in Singapore, Switzerland, the UAE, South Korea and the British Virgin Islands, which "is part of the parent firm Digital Wave Finance (DWF)", presented as one of the top five crypto trading entities by volume thanks to its proprietary high-frequency trading technology. Its website now says that the business "originally began as a proprietary high-frequency trading firm in 2018, and relaunched in 2022 as a client-facing business"; it does not name the 2018 firm, and Digital Wave Finance AG was registered in December 2018. These are the group's own descriptions: no retained register record shows Digital Wave Finance AG as a shareholder of any DWF Labs entity, so "parent firm" is not documented as a legal ownership link. A person familiar with its operations told the cryptocurrency news outlet that DWF Labs was formed with many sales representatives to bring in business while the two sister companies did much of the trading behind the scenes, a division of work that rests on that unnamed source; in the same article Darley Technologies' chair describes Darley and Digital Wave Finance as sister companies. ^{1 2 3}

analysisThe magazine reported in June 2025 that Digital Wave Finance had spawned a number of companies in various jurisdictions, including the UAE-based DWF Labs, where Grachev became managing partner, and that Marco and Remo Schweizer each owned 27% of DWF Labs, as did Grachev. The magazine does not say which DWF Labs entity or date the holdings refer to, no shareholder register is retained, and Grachev did not respond to its requests for comment sent through X and a professional-network website. In a September 2023 interview with a cryptocurrency news outlet Grachev said that the group had its own data centre in Switzerland and a trading company in the Cayman Islands and had never raised outside funds; no Cayman Islands company of the group is identified in the retained records. ^{4 5}

analysisAccording to the cryptocurrency news outlet, the VRM Trade branding was dropped in June 2022, when Grachev set up a Singapore entity for DWF Labs that would take up the mantle as the public face of Digital Wave Finance, with Grachev, Marco and Remo Schweizer and Michael Rendchen as its initial shareholders. DWF LABS PTE. LTD. (UEN 202220906H) was incorporated in Singapore on 16 June 2022 as a private company limited by shares, recorded as an exempt private company, with its registered address at 160 Robinson Road #11-07, Singapore 068914; its status is live. Data of Singapore's Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority shown by commercial directories give it a paid-up ordinary share capital of SGD 50,000 and ten officers; its number of shareholders rose from three to ten on 7 July 2025 and to eleven on 20 September 2026, and its latest annual return was filed on 24 June 2026. The free directory pages show counts only, not the names of officers or shareholders, so the cryptocurrency news outlet's account, based on company records not retained here, cannot be checked against them. According to Singapore trademark data, the company owns the registered trademark "DWF Labs" (application of 20 March 2024, classes 9, 35, 36, 38, 41 and 42, registered until 20 March 2034). ^{1 2 3 4 5 6}

analysisA 2023 pitch deck cited by the cryptocurrency news outlet placed DWF Labs in Switzerland, Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Dubai, where it was licensed by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority free zone, and Korea. Documents and a person with direct knowledge told the cryptocurrency news outlet that deals were typically made through the BVI or Singapore entities, with the BVI favoured because DWF Labs is not licensed by Singapore's market regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The pitch deck and documents are not retained, and the DMCC licence is not documented by a retained licence record. On 10 March 2023 DMCC, the Dubai government free-zone authority, announced a partnership with DWF Labs at its Crypto Centre, under which DWF Labs would set up the DWF Ventures Studio, a USD 5 million growth programme for web3 and blockchain businesses in the free zone. The partnership had been announced at a DWF Labs event in Dubai on 24 February 2023, and the release names Grachev as managing partner. ^{1 7}

analysisThe British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission's register of virtual asset service providers lists DWF MaaS Limited, trading name DWF Labs, with approval for exchange between forms of virtual assets and for financial services related to an issuer's offer or sale of virtual assets; the entry gives no registration number, directors or owners. In a release dated 3 September 2026 in Road Town, Tortola, DWF Labs announced that a group entity had been registered as a virtual asset service provider by the Commission under the Virtual Assets Service Providers Act 2022 for the same two activities, quoting Heng Lee as managing director and partner. The release does not name the entity; the activities match the register entry for DWF MaaS Limited. ^{8 9}

analysisThe November 2022 press release named Grachev as managing partner of DWF Labs and Heng Yu Lee and Eugene Ng as partners. A commercial company database profile lists Vladimir Perov as portfolio manager since July 2022; it is a profile on a user-maintained database, and no other retained record states that role. According to the cryptocurrency news outlet, citing company records, Darley's Clément Florentin joined DWF Labs as a shareholder of its Singapore entity in December 2022; his professional profile had earlier described him as an adviser to DWF Labs since its launch, a line later removed. In January 2023, the cryptocurrency news outlet reported, Zac Zou, formerly of OKEx, Lee and Ng, formerly of Gemini, also became shareholders of the Singapore entity. Lee had been a partner since May 2022 and Ng a founding partner and adviser since 2021, according to their profiles, and both had earlier advised VRM Trade. These accounts rest on records and screenshots seen by the cryptocurrency news outlet and not retained here. The Singapore data retained give only counts: three shareholders until 7 July 2025, when the number rose to ten, and eleven from 20 September 2026. Three is fewer than the number of people the cryptocurrency news outlet names as shareholders in 2022 and 2023, and the retained records do not explain the difference. ^{1 2 3}

analysisOn 29 October 2024 DWF Labs dismissed one of its partners after a woman alleged on X that a DWF Labs partner had slipped a drug into her drink at a work-related meeting in a Hong Kong bar on 24 October 2024. "While the matter is under investigation, DWF Labs has decided to dismiss the said partner from management and operational roles effective immediately," the company stated. It did not name him, but founding partner Eugene Ng was removed from its team page, and according to a digital-finance news outlet the complainant reported the incident to the Hong Kong police. The account of the incident is the complainant's, as reported by a cryptocurrency news outlet and a digital-finance news outlet. A digital-finance news outlet added that security-camera footage posted online showed the partner taking something from his pocket and tipping it into the complainant's glass, and that the complainant told a digital-finance news outlet the man was Ng. Ng did not respond to a request for comment from a digital-finance news outlet, and his X account was made private. On 1 November 2024 Grachev said on X that the dismissed partner was Ng and that he and his team were considering "further legal actions against Eugene". OpenEden, another crypto firm co-founded by Ng, said it had suspended a member of its team and removed the person from management and operations. The retained records report no charge, court proceedings or finding. ^{1 2}