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DWF Labs switches headquarters from Singapore to Abu Dhabi

Web3 & Enterprise·December 03, 2024, 8:48 AM

DWF Labs, a Singapore-based crypto sector investment firm and market maker, has decided to move its headquarters to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

 

Alongside its current offices and headquarters in Singapore, the company has established offices in Dubai, Hong Kong, Switzerland, South Korea and the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

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Focusing on MENA growth

In an X post published on Dec. 2, DWF Labs Co-Founder Andrei Grachev announced the change of headquarters location from Singapore to Abu Dhabi, stating:

 

“In order to build a strong presence in the Middle East and run more RWA [Real World Assets] and financial services there, @DWFLabs is moving the headquarter to Abu Dhabi.”

 

Grachev added that more news in this regard will be announced soon, advising stakeholders to stay tuned regarding the matter. In the past, the DWF Labs founder has highlighted the significance of the Middle Eastern market. 

 

Earlier this year, he suggested that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market is “one of the fastest growing markets in the world,” while commenting on the firm’s partnership with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), a Dubai-based ecosystem for blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. 

 

That isn’t the firm’s only partnership within the UAE. In September, it emerged that it had partnered with Abu Dhabi-based Web3 venture capital firm Klumi Ventures. The firms intend to collaborate in relation to the offering of strategic crypto advisory services in the UAE, investments and market making, market education and in the facilitation of over-the-counter (OTC) deals and crypto asset options.

 

Strategic positioning

At the time, Grachev said that the two firms were “strategically positioned to drive the digital transformation in the UAE,” with the ability to empower both new market entrants and established institutions to succeed within the digital assets arena.

 

It appears that Grachev has been spending a significant amount of time in Abu Dhabi of late. On Sept. 25, he posted on X that he had arrived in Abu Dhabi and was “cooking something special for the industry.” He followed up on that more recently, posting a selfie on X on Nov. 25 with the caption “Chef cooking in Abu Dhabi.”

 

The authorities in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as Singapore, have all been working towards attracting crypto startups to their cities. All of them have had some success in that regard, although DWF Labs’ move away from Singapore indicates how competitive this environment is and how mobile crypto startups are.

 

ADGM crypto hub

In the case of Abu Dhabi, most crypto sector activity has happened within the city’s international financial centre (ADGM), which has attracted projects such as the Kaia DLT Foundation, stablecoin issuer Paxos, blockchain infrastructure firm Blockdaemon, crypto custodian Liminal, crypto venture capital fund Token Bay Capital and many others.

 

DWF Labs was first founded in Singapore in 2022. It has established ecosystem funds and grants relative to projects such as EOS, Floki, Gala Chain, Klaytn and TON. Additionally, the firm has just announced the launch of a $20 million fund focused on meme coin projects.

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Web3 & Enterprise·

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Bybit Powers Trading Tools via ChatGPT Integration

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Web3 & Enterprise·

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Korea Fintech Industry Association Establishes Council for Security Tokens

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Web3 & Enterprise·

May 09, 2023

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