(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump’s crypto project World Liberty Financial has signed a new partner: A market maker that has been accused in press reports of manipulative trading activity.
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Crypto trading house DWF Labs bought $25 million worth of World Liberty’s WLFI tokens in a “strategic private transaction,” according to a statement from the company on Wednesday. It also agreed to provide liquidity for the project’s upcoming USD1 stablecoin.
“As our partner, we expect DWF Labs to help accelerate the next-generation infrastructure we’re actively building and deploying at WLFI,” Zak Folkman, co-founder at World Liberty Financial, said in the DWF statement. World Liberty didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
DWF is based in Dubai, according to the company’s LinkedIn page. It’s helmed by Andrei Grachev, a former head of crypto exchange HTX’s Russian operations. DWF also said it was expanding in the US and opening an office in New York.
Last May, the Wall Street Journal reported that DWF offered to use its active trading position to drive up the prices of cryptocurrencies and create “artificial volume” on exchanges including Binance that would lure in other traders. The report cited proposals the firm sent to potential clients in 2022. After the Journal article was published, DWF posted on X that “allegations reported in the press are unfounded and distort the facts” and that the firm operates with “the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethics.”
DWF Labs also faced allegations that one of its senior partners attempted to drug a woman in Hong Kong last year. DWF later said it had dismissed the partner from management and operational roles.
DWF didn’t immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
The company is the latest crypto magnate to join World Liberty’s investor roster. Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto billionaire who was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023, has invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial and became an adviser to the project last November. Lawyers for Sun and the SEC requested a pause in the proceedings earlier this year.
World Liberty had also been engaged in discussions about doing business with crypto exchange Binance Holdings Ltd., Bloomberg News reported in March. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to anti-money laundering failures that allowed Binance to be used by criminal groups and terrorist organizations, including Hamas.
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