Wave Price: The founder of a blockchain project with roots in Russia has revealed his Ukrainian background, after the price of his project’s token went parabolic – thanks in part to the association of it with Russia.
The founder of a blockchain project with Russian roots has revealed his Ukraine background, after his project’s token price went parabolic – thanks in part to its association with Russia . In a volatile crypto market due to geopolitical tensions, Waves, the native token of the Waves blockchain, has rallied more than 170% in the past two weeks. Valued at over $2.7 billion, the token is currently the 51st largest cryptocurrency by market value, according to data on CoinGecko. Waves is best known as a public blockchain that is closely linked to Russian entities such as state-owned manufacturing giant Rostec and private bank Alfa-Bank after partnering with financial institutions. office.
“The direct cause of Waves’ price spike could be the country’s February 27 announcement,” said Peter Guo, a researcher at Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm Babel. West about cutting some Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system. “Some may flock to Waves in response to potential economic sanctions and limited traditional payment channels.”
A Google search shows that interest in Waves has increased over the past few days, with many online references calling it Russian Ethereum.
Waves founder Alexandr “Sasha” Ivanov told Bloomberg in an interview from Dubai that both he and the project have severed ties with Russia.
“People may associate me with Russia, but I am actually Ukrainian,” said Ivanov, who claims to hold citizenship for both countries, adding that he lived in Ukraine until the age of 17 and moved to Ukraine. Russia to go to school and work. He does not attribute Waves prices to current events.
“I don’t think there is any connection between the situation in Russia and the current market action around Waves,” said Ivanov.
Waves’ development team began moving out of Russia last summer, Ivanov said, and Waves’ main office and most of its staff have moved to Miami. Some employees are also in Dubai and the Netherlands.
The project launched in partnership with Russia’s state-owned defense corporation and another with Alfa-Bank. Waves then distanced itself from Russia by selling the Vostok trademark – Russian for the East – in 2019 and trademarking Waves in Switzerland.
According to Ivanov, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine appears to have undermined Waves’ development.
“We announced our plans for this year a few weeks ago and then the market reacted to that,” he said.
Blockchain data does not seem to support that view. Waves’ 2022 roadmap was announced on Feb. 10. Waves’ price dropped by nearly 9% on the same day. According to data from TradingView and Binance.
Data from blockchain data firm Nansen shows that since February 28, the total number of Waves tokens entering the FTX exchange has gone from nearly zero to 135,242. Nansen told Bloomberg that the Wave tokens going to a deposit wallet labeled FTX were created or minted with an address closely related to the Waves project itself.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield says that a sudden increase in token supply on an exchange is often related to market formation, an area that is difficult to track on a centralized exchange. .
“It is difficult to draw conclusions as to why the project is mining tokens for FTX,” said Babel’s Guo. “As far as we know in the past, this type of outflow is usually accompanied by great selling pressure or an exchange for a stablecoin or fiat.”
Ivanov says that has nothing to do with the token supply line. The tokens on FTX are a “wrapped” version of Waves on the Ethereum blockchain that has nothing to do with the original token, which sits on the Waves blockchain, he said.
“This is not true at all, we do not do business with FTX, nor do we create a market with them,” Ivanov said.
An FTX representative said that the exchange does not provide any market-making services for cryptocurrencies and that they do not know the reason behind the increase in Waves supply to the exchange. They told Bloomberg that there is no notable influx of Waves tokens from popular crypto market maker GSR and Wintermute.
In an October 2020 statement, Waves announced that it began issuing tokens on Ethereum to “enhance interoperability” between the two blockchains. Ivanov said he didn’t want the Ethereum version of Waves from the start, saying that FTX didn’t want to list Waves until they integrated the Ethereum version of the Waves token.
FTX only counts a small amount of Waves trading volume. According to CoinGecko, the token is mainly traded on the South Korean Upbit exchange. Upbit did not respond to a request for comment.
