“South Korea exerts influence beyond market weight in terms of discovering the price of altcoins and forming community-driven narratives.”
“Korea is a global blockchain hub with a high adoption rate of digital assets,” DWF CEO Andrei Grachev and co-founder of Falcon Finance said in a recent interview with Maeil Business Newspaper.
DWF is a global digital asset market maker (MM) and a venture capital (VC) company. The synthetic stablecoin protocol “Falcon Finance” is also famous as a project initially fostered by DWF.
“Individual investors in Korea have been powered in several market cycles, from early DeFi tokens to the Layer 1 ecosystem,” he said. “It is one of the most structurally important digital asset markets in the world.”
In the crypto market, market makers (MMs) are often cited as price manipulation forces. Of course, DWF is often pointed out as the subject of price manipulation. DWF currently offers 24/7 algorithmic market making in more than 60 centralized and decentralized exchanges.
In particular, in the Korean market, Grachev was controversial in the past by tweeting ‘Kimchi hehe’. “Those who manipulate prices are not real professional MM, and DWF does not do that,” Grachev said. “MM’s role is to provide sufficient trading liquidity to traders by continuously providing buy and sell prices across the exchange.”
In particular, he said, “MM is an institution that creates an orderly and efficient market, not a directional price movement.”
DWF is not just a market making business. “In addition to market making, we also carry out ecosystem growth support and treasure management for projects that manage digital asset reserves,” he said. “DWF also does block deal processing for OTC transactions and investment and support for initial projects through DWF Ventures.”
“DWF’s market making deepens the market for the assets we have invested in, DWF’s exchange network accelerates the market entry of the teams we incubate, and DWF’s market making strengthens the market for the assets we have invested in,” he said.
CEO Grachev is focusing on Falcon Finance, a synthetic stablecoin protocol that DWF recently invested in and grew USDf supply to $2 billion.
Falcon Finance has launched Anchorage Digital Bank and stablecoin fUSD.
FUSD is a stablecoin that complies with the Genius Act, issued by Anchorage, and interest or compensation for holding fUSD is not paid under the Genius Act. However, Falcon Finance operates an institutional compensation program that targets about 3% per year.
However, some are concerned that the launch of fUSD may throw away the stablecoin USDf, which has been focused on by Falcon Finance.
“FUSD and USDf are fundamentally designed to coexist for different target layers,” Grachev said. “USDf, a composite dollar based on over-collateral, continues to support DeFi-friendly users and subjects with multiple collateral requirements, and fUSD targets regulatory-constrained institutions.”
Regarding concerns that fUSD is indirectly paying interest, he said, “FUSD intentionally separated the issuance, consignment, and compensation program operations into three different entities: Anchorage, Ceffu, and Falcon Finance,” adding, “There will be no problem because compensation comes from economic returns that operate it, not from the function built into the token itself, and can only be accessed by signing a contract with Falcon Finance.”
Falcon Finance plans to introduce fUSD if it has a chance in the Korean market in the future. However, there is no specific plan yet.
“Korea is always a priority market and demand for profitable products is strong,” Grachev said. “However, we are focusing on community education now.”
“As important as when to introduce fUSD, how and through whom to introduce it is important,” he said. “As soon as the specific picture comes out, we will put Korea first.”
