According to The Wall Street Journal, Binance’s market surveillance team has discovered that the cryptocurrency market maker and investment firm, DWF Labs, is suspected of market manipulation. Investigators pointed out that during 2023, DWF Labs manipulated the market prices of YGG and at least six other tokens, processed over $300 million in wash trades, and advised the company to remove the client.
One case involved DWF Labs founder Andrei Grachev publicly tweeting a pump for YGG on X, after which DWF sold nearly 5 million tokens in two batches near the peak, causing a token crash. Gabby Dizon, co-founder of YGG, stated that he was unaware of the investigation results.
However, the head of Binance’s surveillance department was fired after reporting DWF’s alleged market manipulation. The report stated that Binance Exchange believed the fake trades identified by the surveillance team were proprietary trades and did not constitute manipulation. At the same time, Binance also stated that the head of the surveillance team had collaborated too closely with DWF’s competitors in this case. Former Binance insiders stated that firing an internal investigator showed that the cryptocurrency exchange ignored evidence of market manipulation.
In response, DWF Labs quickly released a tweet stating that many of the recent media reports are unfounded, and that DWF Labs always adheres to the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethics.
However, in reality, DWF Labs has long had a notorious reputation in the cryptocurrency industry, and its market manipulation practices are not news anymore. Previously, the founders of two well-known cryptocurrency market makers, Wintermute and GSR, even publicly quarreled with the founder of DWF Labs on X.
