Sweeping against the trend after a 90% decline? a16z and Bain invested $135 million in WLD

Written by: 1912212.eth, Foresight News

On May 21, World Foundation announced that its subsidiary, World Assets Ltd., had sold $135 million worth of WLD tokens to early backers Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Bain Capital Crypto at market prices, and the WLD price briefly rose more than 13% to a maximum of $1.29, with a 70% surge in trading volume.

In response, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougam tweeted, "The price of the WLD that a16z and Bain bought with huge sums of money has fallen by 90% in the last 14 months. I've never seen anything like this before. Honestly, it's kind of funny."

Two venture capital funds are buying tokens without discounts.

According to the official announcement of Worldcoin, this is not a new round of venture capital, but two venture capital funds through the direct purchase of undiscounted WLD tokens, including well-known venture capital a16z and Bain Capital Crypto. The funds will be used primarily to accelerate the expansion of the World network, specifically to support its presence in the U.S. market, including the construction of an Orb manufacturing facility in Richardson, Texas, to mass-produce authentication devices for iris scanning. According to the official blog, as of April 28, 2025, there are 1.3 billion WLDs in circulation, accounting for 13% of the total supply.

It is worth mentioning that this is also another big purchase of tokens by a16z since the beginning of this year. The last time was back in April this year, when a16z spent $55 million to buy LayerZero's ZRO tokens, with a 3-year lock-up period.

Co-founded in 2019 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others, Worldcoin aims to build a global identity verification system called "World ID" through iris scanning technology to distinguish humans from AI and respond to the growing demand for digital identity. In May 2023, Tools for Humanity, a Worldcoin development company, closed a $115 million Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital with participation from a16z, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global.

As of May 2025, the Worldcoin network has attracted over 26 million users, of which 12.5 million have a World ID verified by Orb. Worldcoin has established a certain user base globally, demonstrating strong appeal especially in emerging markets.

The token sale comes at a time when the cryptocurrency market as a whole is picking up. Bitcoin has recently hit new all-time highs, driving up the prices of several tokens, including WLD. Worldcoin chose to conduct a large-scale token sale at this time, both to capture the market boom and to fund its expansion in the US market.

So why did the two venture capital firms choose to buy WLD tokens at this time?

a16z and Bain are typical long-term investors, whose goal is often to seize platform-level opportunities rather than engage in short-term speculation. Although WLD is currently at a low point, from a technical, team, and overall perspective, it may be a moment where its "value is underestimated." Market panic and valuation mismatches present opportunities; a 90% drop has caused many investors to panic and exit, but for seasoned institutions, this may precisely indicate that "prices are significantly below intrinsic value." They may believe that the market is overreacting and that this is an ideal time for low-cost positioning.

In addition, Worldcoin's strong defense of privacy controversies at the Consensus 2025 conference further boosted investor confidence. The team emphasized that its iris scan data is stored locally and complies with privacy protection requirements, which alleviated market concerns about data security to some extent.

Expanding market layout and technological innovation in the United States

One of the core goals of this VC purchase token is to support Worldcoin's expansion in the U.S. market. Worldcoin has launched its identity verification system "World ID" in the U.S. on May 1 and has opened iris scanning service points in six cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami.

In addition, with the World App debit card program in partnership with Visa and the age verification pilot on Tinder with Match Group, Worldcoin continues to move in the financial and social sectors, not only enhancing Worldcoin's brand presence, but also supporting the real-world use case of its token, WLD.

On a technical level, the launch of Worldcoin's Orb Mini device and World ID version 3.0 marks its continued innovation in blockchain and biometric technology. NVIDIA-powered Orb devices are able to efficiently scan iris and generate privacy-preserving digital identities, which is important in the context of countering AI-generated content. Worldcoin has also launched the World Chain blockchain, which prioritizes human-verified transactions, further strengthening the integrity of its technology ecosystem.

Summary

Despite the promising prospects, Worldcoin still faces challenges. The first is the issue of privacy. Despite the team's repeated emphasis on its data protection measures, iris scanning technology has sparked controversy in several regions around the world. In early May 2025, Indonesia suspended Worldcoin's operations due to privacy concerns, and Spain and Portugal have also launched investigations into how it collects data. These regulatory pressures may limit the speed at which Worldcoin can expand in certain markets. Finally, Worldcoin's business model is not yet fully mature. While its user base is growing rapidly, it will take time to verify how to translate iris scanning technology and WLD tokens into sustainable business value.

However, Jake Brukhman, co-founder of CoinFund and one of Worldcoin's earliest investors, was optimistic, saying in a retweet of a long WLD post, "I first bought Bitcoin at a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of about $10 billion. That was 12 years ago, and vested interests, from the news media to financial institutions to governments, were almost all trying to stifle it, and only recently did it change. WLD will be a more widely distributed currency and will move forward in an era with a variety of tailwinds: including a positive regulatory environment, iOS support for crypto, and the blockchain innovation of the past 12 years is about to enter the real-world adoption phase."