Things could get even worse with a major token unlock scheduled for late July.
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Last October, Thai authorities raided an iris-scanning site associated with Sam Altman's World Project. That was difficult enough.
Now, the foundation behind the biometric ID platform is selling its own tokens for a fraction of what investors paid for less than a year ago, but the market isn't taking kindly to it.
The World Foundation revealed on Saturday that its token issuing arm, World Asset, completed over-the-counter sales of $65 million worth of WLD tokens across four buyers in the past week.
The first batch was settled on March 20th. Based on an average sale price of approximately $0.27 per token, this transaction would have seen approximately 239 million WLD change hands.
76% down from last year's trading price
The numbers speak for themselves. In May 2024, World raised $135 million from backers including Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto at approximately $1.13 per token.
1/ World Assets, Ltd. completed a series of OTC sales totaling $65 million with four counterparties over the past week, the first of which closed on March 20, 2026.
— World Foundation (@worldcoinfnd) March 28, 2026
This latest sale started at $0.27, down 76% from that round. The foundation said proceeds will fund its core operations, research and development, orb manufacturing and ecosystem activities.
2/ The sale took place at an average price of ~$0.2719/WLD. The $25 million worth of tokens sold will be subject to a six-month lock-up period.
— World Foundation (@worldcoinfnd) March 28, 2026
Not all tokens sold are locked. Of the $65 million total, only $25 million worth is subject to a six-month lock-up period. The rest became immediately tradable, allowing buyers to immediately move those tokens on the open market.
3/ This sale will fund the project's core operations and activities, including research and development, orb manufacturing, and ecosystem development.
— World Foundation (@worldcoinfnd) March 28, 2026
After the sale announcement, WLD briefly hit an all-time low of $0.24, but has since returned to around $0.27. At this price, the token is approximately 97% below its peak of $11.82 recorded in March 2024.
As of the latest reading, WLD was trading at $0.2725, up just 0.27% in 24 hours, according to Coingecko data.
A new wave of supply is on the way
The pain may not be over yet. According to DefiLlama data, a large community token unlock is scheduled for July 23rd, covering approximately 52% of WLD’s total supply of 10 billion tokens. This type of release usually increases selling pressure. And it comes at a time when the token is already nearing an all-time low.
This project also raises global regulatory issues that transcend national borders. Indonesian authorities have suspended World ID registration due to compliance concerns. Brazil has banned the platform's eye scan operations. Germany has launched its own investigation. Kenya strongly objected on data privacy grounds.
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Regulatory fever continues to rise
The Thai attack added a new entry to that list. Officials working through the Securities and Exchange Commission in parallel with the Cybercrime Investigation Bureau said the iris scanning service may have been operating without the necessary licenses. An arrest has been made and the investigation is still ongoing.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView
