World Foundation sells 217.4M WLD tokens for $52.5M to fund infrastructure expansion

World Foundation, the nonprofit backing Sam Altman's World Protocol, has completed a strategic sale of 217.4 million Worldcoin (WLD) tokens for $52.5 million, directing the proceeds toward expanding the project's infrastructure as it marks three years since launch. On-chain tracking cited from Hupzy (formerly Spotonchain) shows the foundation received 47.5 million USDC following the WLD outflow. The foundation said the transaction was an institutional round that included Pantera Capital, Bain Capital Crypto and Susquehanna Crypto, with publicly listed WLD-treasury firm Eightco Holdings also participating. Eightco said in a post on X that the purchased tokens are subject to a one-year lockup and were not sold through exchanges. The foundation said the funding will be used to accelerate utility and access for World ID, its proof-of-human system. It argued demand for human verification is rising as advances in AI fuel deepfakes and bot activity. The protocol now counts nearly 40 million users globally, according to an anniversary statement. World has faced privacy-related scrutiny in several countries, but adoption has continued. World ID has been integrated with services including Tinder, Zoom, Vercel and Shopify. The foundation said the project is now in Phase 3 of its "Simple Plan," focused on integrating proof-of-human capabilities into more consumer and enterprise platforms, and it also plans to launch a new World ID app. WLD slid more than 10% over the past 24 hours after the sale, signaling negative market reaction despite the lockup. The token is down 28% year-to-date and was trading around $0.34. It remains about 97% below its March 2024 peak of $11.74, though it still trades above the $0.24 per-token price implied by the strategic sale. Institutional interest has persisted. Grayscale filed an S-1 registration statement on July 20 for a WLD exchange-traded fund (ETF).