WLD Gains Institutional Support Again: Can It Reach New Heights with OpenAI's Valuation Imagination?

The World Foundation has completed a strategic sale of $52.5 million in tokens, led by Pantera Capital.

Written by: Nicky, Foresight News

On July 24, the World Foundation, a nonprofit organization behind the World protocol, announced the completion of a strategic sale of $52.5 million in WLD tokens, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, WLD treasury company Eightco Holdings, Selini Capital, and Susquehanna Crypto. All sold tokens are subject to a one-year lock-up period.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, the World Foundation sold 217.4 million WLD tokens to the aforementioned institutions approximately 8 hours before the announcement, with a transaction price of about $0.24 based on the financing amount, representing a discount of about 26% compared to the current price of WLD. The relevant tokens have been distributed from the team wallet to multiple addresses.

According to CoinMarketCap data, WLD is currently priced at approximately $0.326, with a circulating market cap of about $1.22 billion and a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of about $3.24 billion, ranking 47th by market cap. The token once reached a high of $11 in March 2024, and the current price has dropped about 97% from that peak.

This is the second large token sale by the World Foundation recently. On March 28, the World Foundation disclosed that its subsidiary, World Assets, Ltd., completed a total of $65 million in over-the-counter sales with four counterparties within a week, with an average price of about $0.2719 per token, of which $25 million worth of tokens had a 6-month lock-up period. After these two sales, the total financing amount for the World project has reached approximately $492.5 million.

The World Foundation stated that the WLD tokens sold this time are only for internal use within the World Network ecosystem and do not represent equity interests in the profit-making company Tools for Humanity behind the project. The funds raised will be used to promote World ID technology to enterprises, individual users, and AI entities. The core product of World, World ID, proves a user is a real human through a one-time Orb biometric verification without exposing their identity.

On July 25, the World project celebrated its third anniversary and announced the entry into the third phase of its foundational roadmap, "Simple Plan," aiming to promote human verification technology to consumer platforms, enterprise clients, and AI entities in broader application scenarios. The project team stated that World ID has penetrated key aspects of daily digital interactions, such as allowing all participants in a Zoom meeting to verify their real identities, ensuring matches on Tinder occur between real people, and allowing concert tickets to flow to fans rather than bot ticketing programs.

Official data shows that the World Network currently covers over 39 million users globally, with more than 18 million having completed Orb verification and integrations with platforms such as Zoom, DocuSign, Okta, Vercel, and Tinder.

The World project, originally named Worldcoin, was co-founded in 2019 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alex Blania, and Max Novendstern. In October 2024, the project was officially renamed World Network and launched the World Chain mainnet, with the new brand encompassing three core pillars: WorldChain, World ID, and Worldcoin. According to DefiLlama data, the current total locked value of WorldChain is approximately $317 million.

Recently, World has been active in the capital markets. On July 21, Grayscale submitted a registration statement for a Worldcoin ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which will hold WLD as a passive investment tool and, if approved, will be listed on NASDAQ, with Bank of New York Mellon acting as the transfer agent and BitGo Bank & Trust serving as the custodian. On June 23, Robinhood listed the WLD token. Additionally, WLD treasury company Eightco Holdings has changed its NASDAQ stock code to "ORBS" as of September 2025, after announcing the completion of $250 million in private financing to launch the WLD treasury strategy.

In terms of technological progress, World ID 4.0 officially introduced a fee system on April 17, allowing credential issuers and protocol layers to charge applications for using Proof of Human credentials while keeping the end users completely free. This mechanism aims to create sustainable revenue for the World protocol and form a positive growth cycle.

However, the project also faces regulatory and compliance challenges. On June 25, Business Insider reported, citing informed sources, that Tools for Humanity launched two investigations led by external law firms last year, targeting improper use of funds by executives and alleged violations in its Thailand operations. Relevant executives were accused of approving payments of millions of dollars to a foreign company, not for normal business procurement, but to artificially inflate the market price of WLD. Additionally, the company's Thai partner has been identified as an internationally wanted fraud suspect. Regulatory agencies in multiple countries have also raised serious concerns about Tools for Humanity's iris scanning and data collection methods.

In the crypto community, some investors view WLD as an alternative speculative asset before OpenAI's IPO, believing that holding WLD is equivalent to indirectly betting on Sam Altman's future landscape. This sentiment is sometimes reflected in the secondary market, where significant developments from OpenAI often drive short-term volatility in WLD. Although the market often associates World with OpenAI due to Sam Altman's personal involvement, the two are completely independent in legal, financial, and operational terms, with no equity crossover or parent-subsidiary relationship.

This content is provided for general informational purposes only and doesn't constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Any events, rewards, online promotions, or related information mentioned herein should not be considered a recommendation, solicitation, or invitation to purchase, sell, trade, or otherwise deal in any crypto assets. Crypto assets are highly volatile and may result in loss. The availability of WEEX services, products, and related events may vary by region. You are responsible for ensuring that your participation is in accordance with applicable local laws and regulations.