A massive token unlock scheduled for late July could make things worse.
Thailand authorities raided an iris-scanning site tied to Sam Altman’s World project last October. That was trouble enough.
Now the foundation behind the biometric identity platform is selling its own token at a fraction of what investors paid less than a year ago — and the market is not taking it well.
A 76% Drop From Last Year’s Deal PriceThe numbers tell the story. In May 2024, World raised $135 million at approximately $1.13 per token from backers including Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto.
1/ World Assets, Ltd. has now closed a series of OTC sales for a total of $65,000,000 with four counterparties over the past week, the first of which settled on March 20, 2026.
This latest sale went out the door at $0.27 — a 76% drop from that round. The foundation said the proceeds will fund core operations, research and development, orb manufacturing, and ecosystem work.
2/ The sale was conducted at an average price of ~$0.2719/WLD. $25,000,000 worth of the tokens sold are subject to a 6-month lockup period.
Not all the tokens sold are locked up. Of the $65 million total, only $25 million worth carry a six-month lockup period. The rest were immediately available to trade, meaning buyers could move those tokens on the open market right away.
3/ This sale funds the project’s core operations and activities, R&D, orb manufacturing, ecosystem development, and more.
WLD briefly touched an all-time low of $0.24 after the sale was announced before clawing back to around $0.27. At that price, the token sits roughly 97% below its peak of $11.82 recorded in March 2024.
According to Coingecko data, WLD was trading at $0.2725 as of the latest reading, up just 0.27% over a 24-hour period.
World’s regulatory problems have also followed the project across borders. Authorities in Indonesia suspended World ID registration over compliance concerns. Brazil banned the platform’s eye-scanning operation. Germany opened its own inquiry. Kenya pushed back hard on data privacy grounds.
Regulatory Heat Keeps BuildingThe Thailand raid added another entry to that list. Officials there, working through the Securities and Exchange Commission alongside the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, said the iris-scanning service may have operated without the required license. Arrests were made and an investigation remains open.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView
