Part II. Grachev Aloft: Watching for HFT Prey
Note: This collection of notes from my research for "The Telegram Labyrinth" identifies the defensive financial measures Pavel Durov has taken between May 2025 and December 2025. Most of the information originated in Russian social media; for example, online articles, Telegram messages, items in PCNews.ru, and VKontakte pages. I collected my notes and continue to sort and resort them. Remember, the statements in this essay are from my notes and should be viewed as working hypotheses. Verify before you trust any of my observations. These are speculations I captured as I was writing “The Telegram Labyrinth” and as I draft my 2026 lectures to cyber investigators. Keep the disclaimers in mind as you review this briefing document.
The Falcon's Pattern
In my notes, I had numerous factoids about Risch, Switzerland. One example: Risch is the Aspen, Colorado of Switzerland, just few rock stars." In Part I of this three-part essay, I summarized how a no-clout fellow from Uzbekistan ended up on the government-linked RACIB association in Moscow. In this segment I want to present some information about Zug, Switzerland, where crypto is king.
Risch, a suburb of Zug, is about 15 minutes from the city's innenstadt. The quaint town was home to the two Silicon Valley-type crypto bros. The Schweizers, Marco and Remo. The brothers had math and computer skills. Marco attended ETH and earned a Ph.D. Ramo just coded. The duo built a high-frequency trading platform of HFT tailored for crypto. In 2018, there were numerous crypto trading platforms. The Schweizers' had a special feature. The system could crunch more than 5,000 crypto trades per second.
Plus, their HFT systems scanned crypto prices from multiple crypto marketplaces in near real time. Then the software-controlled trading agent would initiate buy or sell transactions with the highest probability score to deliver a profit. Like the legendary Silicon Valley wizards working in garages, Marco and Remo worked at home. Instead of dozens of expensive and hard-to-manage MBAs, Marco and Remo used software. The brothers worked with Michael Rendchen. A couple of service providers handled the power, pipes, and pings.
Grachev's raptor radar lit up. He did what any Uzbek merchant would do. He cut a deal. In my notes, I wrote this: "Grachev pitched Huobi China and the Schweizers' zero fee trading for Huobi global crypto transactions. As part of the deal, the Schweizers routed their large and rapidly growing HFT volume through Huobi Russia. The trading volume was a magnet. It pulled those with money to the HFT system."
To what end?
The set up manufactured liquidity for Huobi Moscow. For the Schweizers, Grachev represented a conduit to investors with a need to diversify from cash into the booming crypto game. One of the Russian social media posts I saw said that Grachev was able to report to his Chinese boss that on the first day the HFT system went live for Huobi Moscow, $10 million in trades took place within 24 hours. These were no-load phantom trades. His superiors at Huobi Global believed him.
The payoffs from this clever marketing tactic would come quickly as word of the HFT "magic" service diffused through Moscow's financial and crypto communities. Grachev became the marketer and a market maker for a Chinese outfit with clout.
I wrote to myself: "Grachev has inserted himself between an HFT system and people with money who need to make it people seeking to move capital into harder-to-trace digital assets." His becoming a man in the middle, the go-to person between liquidity and capital was the power supply for his system, and it became his repeatable pattern in later ventures.
Huobi Moscow benefitted strategically in two ways, according to my notes:
High volume creates the illusion of a busy, liquid marketplace. This manufactured activity attracted actual customers who saw the high volume and felt safe depositing their own money, believing the exchange was a major hub. The synthetic volume was a marketing play to sign up new customers. Score a second strike for Grachev.
Andrei Grachev proved to Huobi China's headquarters that his HFC idea was a hat trick: Pulling inquiries, essential a legal service, and automating HFT worked. By generating $10 million in volume on Day 1, he hit his performance targets and became CEO of Huobi Moscow. Grachev morphed from fledgling into a financial raptor on steroids.
The big win, however, was that Grachev's success with HFT in 2019 provided him with Version 1.0 of what would be refined to a standardized financial procedure. I noted on one of my cards: "Grachev assembled a cookie cutter for HFT and punched out startups like a baker finishing morning pastries."
Was automated HFT legal? Who knew? Crypto was largely unregulated. Crypto was hot, and to some crypto believers, the future of global finance. Why not bet some money and then cash out with a huge profit. Was crypto gambling or a good investment? Crypto believers thought crypto was the future of global finance. Grachev was on fire.
Vrooom: His HFT Model in Moscow
Coincident with his becoming CEO of Huobi Moscow, Grachev landed an invitation to join RACIB (the Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, AI and Blockchain). In a few months, he picked up the title of vice president. RACIB certified the Uzbek as both a wheeler dealer and a mover and shaker. At RACIB, he recognized a fellow raptor named Vladimir Demin. (Note: Demin was an official at VEB.rf aka Vnesheconombank, the Russian state development corporation. VEB.rf remains a non-profit state entity utilized by the Kremlin to fund politically important and complex projects of national significance.)
I characterized the Grachev-Demin couple as "having greed in common." Grachev had the DNA of a marketer; Demin had the DNA of a politics player. The two found themselves aligned on the importance of the need for "dark pool" HFT for crypto holders and certain high net worth individuals. (Note: These people and organizations wanted to avoid certain regulatory scrutiny and convert assets into anonymous crypto. Blockchain-based crypto was believed to be anonymous and likely to appreciate in value.) Also, when Grachev resigned from Huobi, Demin took his place as CEO in 2019. Grachev and Demin continued to do business together.
One of their first startups was Vroom. The jazzy name became VRM.trade and was sometimes marketed as Black Ocean. Grachev used his template. Register the company in Latvia. Coordinate with "appropriate" people. Ramp up revenues from service fees. Walk away when the profits dwindled. Grachev would spin up a new venture. He would wrap the old, reliable machinery in a new venture and scan for new opportunities.
Grachev's MESI education and his on-the-job experience taught him to operate cross-jurisdictional entities. His nose for crypto allowed him to become a celebrity in the world of crypto. Demin handled the political side of the businesses. Grachev walked the line between a services company and a financial institution. I wrote on one of my notecards: "Was Grachev and Demin running lawful businesses? Answer: It depends on whom one asks."
In what would prove to be a prescient move, Grachev set up operations in Switzerland. First up was Darley Technologies. That company managed an options and derivatives desk. The firm's specific focus was on structured products, Requests for Quotes (RFQs), and volatility-based trading.
He packaged the HFT machinery and the Schweizers into Digital Wave Finance. Vladimir Perov, who was his colleague at Ulmart, developed a management command-and-control system so that the complex algorithmic trading and market-making across global exchanges could be more easily managed. Demin operated primarily from Moscow, leveraging the RACIB network and handling the duties of a political masseur in Moscow.
Grachev was a skillful operator. He set up his companies to take advantage of jurisdictional boundaries, registering firms in the British Virgin Islands. He positioned his companies as services, not banks or brokers. He specialized in crypto, which remains "money" not comprehensively regulated in most countries.
Grachev has a knack for naming his ventures. Vroom was evocative of fast-moving financial outfit. "Black Ocean" came charged with meaning certain "international investors" (possibly people like oligarchs and entities such as certain government units with cash to invest). The concept of crypto was addictive for some. Transactions moved faster than the anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) buzzkillers could.
Grachev may not be as well-known as the 9th-century Uzbek astronomer Ahmad al-Fergani. But Grachev is definitely a creative innovator. The name "DWF Labs" is neutral. It sounds scientific and unrelated to crypto and financial transactions. The company DWF MaaS essentially remains opaque to most people unless "MaaS" is spelled out: Market making as a service.
Grachev, like some other Eastern European senior managers, relies on what might be called "the one family" approach to business. For example, Grachev and Perov (an administrative system wizard) became Grachev, Perov, and Demin. Personal interactions and recommendations from a "family" member allowed Grachev's businesses to stay lean. The Schweizers' operation in Switzerland remained in Risch, a suburb of Zug, Switzerland, in the country's crypto valley. The Schweizers stuck with Grachev. Few knew that Grachev's companies was some software, several guys in Moscow, and a few math and computer nerds in Zug, Switzerland.
The Falcon Is Hungry
In 2022, Grachev targeted another opportunity: Telegram's captive TON Foundation. He took off for the Middle East, destination United Arab Emirates.
In Part III of this discussion of Andrei Grachev, I will pick up the story of Grachev's attempt to make the biggest kill of his financial career. He had his HFT engine. Could he become a global powerhouse in cryto currency trading? Could he crack the US financial markets? Could he and his happy family survive in the blast radius of a a nuclear-capable kinetic weapon French missile like the ASMP-A (Air-Sol Moyenne Portée-Amélioré?
Part III will wrap up this discussion of Andrei Grachev, the Uzbek financial falcon.