The price of Worldcoin’s WLD token skyrocketed by a staggering 167% in just seven days. Marking a significant surge attributed to the firm’s achievement of a major milestone. Worldcoin, a crypto project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, witnessed a remarkable rise in its native token (WLD) over the past week, coinciding with the attainment of over 1 million daily active users for its crypto wallet application.
Launch and surge of the Worldcoin
In a recent announcement on February 18th, Worldcoin disclosed that its crypto wallet app, known as the “World App,” surpassed the remarkable milestone of 1 million users. This substantial growth represents a notable increase from the mere 100,000 daily active users reported back in November of the previous year.
Launched in July 2023 by Sam Altman and Alex Blania, Worldcoin stands as a self-proclaimed “privacy-preserving” digital identity verification initiative, rewarding users with its native cryptocurrency in exchange for scanning their irises.
Despite its ambitious aim of implementing Universal Basic Income (UBI) alongside its biometric identity system, Worldcoin has faced considerable controversy, as per reports. Particularly concerning privacy issues surrounding its eye-scanning devices dubbed “Orbs.” Regulatory scrutiny has intensified, with Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) initiating an investigation into Worldcoin’s local operations due to “serious risks to personal data privacy.”
Hong Kong’s suspicions
Reports state that the PCPD executed warrants and conducted inspections at six locations controlled by Worldcoin in Hong Kong as part of its probe.
Beyond Hong Kong, regulatory concerns have attracted attention globally, leading to the suspension of Worldcoin’s services in Kenya and a temporary halt to iris scans in India. Despite these challenges, the native Worldcoin token has demonstrated remarkable resilience. Recording a remarkable 167% surge in value over the past week, buoyed by a broader rally across the cryptocurrency market.
Meanwhile, Worldcoin’s recent gains have coincided with significant developments from OpenAI. On February 16th, OpenAI unveiled its latest innovation, Sora, a text-to-video generator enabling users to create video clips and scenes from text prompts.
This advancement follows closely on the heels of Altman’s announcement on February 9th, revealing plans to raise an astonishing $7 trillion to support the firm’s semiconductor chip development endeavors. Despite raising eyebrows within the tech community due to the colossal funding goal, Altman remains undeterred.
