WLD

World (Worldcoin)

AI

Iris-scan proof of personhood with a growing app, but a token that leaks supply and is down 95% from its ATH.

Real product, weak token v1.1 · as of 2026-10-21 · framework v1.13 Coinsight · all analyses
Bottom line

World is turning its Orb-based World ID into a business product: World Money launched in 150+ countries in September and a World ID suite for banks followed on 18 Oct 2026, with ~18M people verified. The token has not kept up: −36% over a year, −95% from the $11.74 ATH, and still only ~38% of supply circulating while ~2.9M WLD unlocks every day. The rebound from the $0.23 May low (+146%) rests on the unlock cut, a pending Grayscale ETF and AI sentiment more than on fees, because WLD captures little direct revenue.

Scorecard (1–5)
Project
Token performance
Tokenomics
Price
$0.5704
−1.3% 24h · +31% 30d · CoinGecko 21 Oct
Market cap
$2.18B
rank #50 · FDV $5.70B
24h volume
$443.4M
20.4% of market cap
From ATH
−95%
ATH $11.74, Mar 2024
2026 YTD
+18%
$0.4816 → $0.5704
Verified humans
~18M
World ID via Orb · company figure, Oct 2026

The last 12 months

$0.25$0.5$0.75$1$1.25Oct 25NovDecJan 26FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNov2025-10-27: $0.9477$0.95 peak2026-05-02: $0.2322$0.23 low2026-06-17: $0.674$0.672026-10-21: $0.5707$0.571OTC sales near $0.272Unlock cut announced3Year low at $0.234Oku Trade in World App5Grayscale files WLD ETF6Daily unlocks cut 43%7World Money launches8World ID for banks9GWLD ETF decision
TokenomicsMarketProductAdoptionUpcoming

Daily closes from CoinGecko, 22 Oct 2025 to 21 Oct 2026.

Key events
  1. 1
    Mar 26 OTC sales near $0.27. Reports of ~$65M in OTC sales by World Assets, part locked six months; figures vary by source.
  2. 2
    Apr 26 Unlock cut announced. Daily unlocks to fall ~43% from 24 Jul; about 4.9B WLD unlocked by then.
  3. 3
    02 May 26 Year low at $0.23. Daily close of $0.23 after a slide from $0.95 in late Oct 2025.
  4. 4
    04 Jun 26 Oku Trade in World App. Trading added to World App; WLD reaches $0.67 by 17 Jun, nearly triple the May low, helped by OpenAI and AI hype.
  5. 5
    20 Jul 26 Grayscale files WLD ETF. Spot ETF filed with the SEC for a Nasdaq listing as GWLD.
  6. 6
    24 Jul 26 Daily unlocks cut 43%. From ~5.1M to ~2.9M WLD a day; Foundation also raises $52.5M in a WLD sale locked for one year.
  7. 7
    17 Sep 26 World Money launches. Self-custodial money app with stablecoins and Stripe funding, live in 150+ countries.
  8. 8
    18 Oct 26 World ID for banks. Suite launched at Money20/20 against deepfake fraud; WLD +7.7% the next day.
  9. 9
    Soon GWLD ETF decision. Grayscale's spot WLD ETF still awaits SEC review; no fixed date.

How a person gets and uses a World ID

User
Installs World App

Creates a self-custodial wallet on the phone.

Orb
Scans the iris once

Checks the person is real and unique; makes an iris code.

Protocol
World ID issued

A commitment is added to the on-chain set; the key stays on the phone.

App or bank
Asks for proof

E.g. Zoom, a bank login or an AI-agent check.

Phone
Sends a ZK proof

Proves 'verified human' without revealing who; a nullifier stops reuse.

World Foundation
Pays WLD grants

Verified users can claim WLD from the community allocation.

Where WLD comes in: mainly at the end, as grants and Orb operator rewards paid from unlocking supply (the mint). The proof itself, World Chain fees (paid in ETH) and stablecoin payments in World Money bypass WLD, so product growth does not automatically create token demand.

Usage and adoption

WLD per month (approximate)
Eightco treasury buying (Jun–Sep)
~8M
Unlocks now (since 24 Jul)
~87M
Unlocks before 24 Jul
~153M

WLD has no fee burn or buyback, so the closest equivalent to paid demand is treasury buying. Eightco went from ~283.5M WLD (24 Jun) to ~302M (2 Sep), about 8M a month. Unlocks are 2.9M/day now and ~5.1M/day before the 24 Jul cut (KuCoin citing the World blog). Even after the cut, new supply is roughly 10 times the largest visible buyer.

  • weak signal
    Paid usage / fees
    Not disclosed

    No protocol revenue flows to WLD; World ID and World Money do not require it.

  • medium signal
    Verified humans
    ~18M

    Orb-verified World IDs, company figure from the 19 Oct 2026 press release. Real, costly sign-ups, but not paying users.

  • medium signal
    Treasury holdings
    ~302M WLD

    Eightco (ORBS), 2 Sep 2026. Direct, measurable demand, but one holder.

  • weak signal
    World Money reach
    150+ countries

    Launched 17 Sep 2026; features vary by country and no usage numbers yet.

  • weak signal
    Partner verifications
    50k+ in Japan

    MEDIROM stores, Jul 2026. One partner, shows steady local growth.

World is getting real distribution for World ID and its wallet, but the token sits beside these products rather than inside them. Until WLD is needed for verification, payments or fees, unlocks outweigh any visible demand.

Project

What it is
A proof-of-personhood network: the Orb scans a person's iris once and issues a World ID, an anonymous credential that proves to apps that a user is a unique human. Around it sit World App, the new World Money wallet and World Chain, an OP Stack layer 2.
Team
Built by Tools for Humanity (CEO and co-founder Alex Blania), co-founded with OpenAI's Sam Altman. The World Foundation, a nonprofit, stewards the protocol and the WLD treasury; it raised $52.5M in a Pantera-led WLD sale in July 2026.
Technology
Iris codes plus zero-knowledge proofs: apps learn only that a person is verified and has not used the same action before. Orb Mini, a phone-sized Orb, aims to make verification portable.
Traction
~18M people verified (company, Oct 2026). World Money rolled out in 150+ countries on 17 Sep 2026 with Stripe and Apple Pay funding in the US; World ID for banks launched at Money20/20 on 18 Oct with design partners but no named bank.
Competitors
Other proof-of-human projects (Humanity Protocol, Human Passport), government digital-ID wallets, and KYC/anti-fraud vendors; for World Money, every fintech and crypto wallet.
Key risks
Biometric data collection draws regulators and privacy objections in many countries; most products work without holding WLD; heavy daily unlocks; the price trades on Sam Altman and OpenAI headlines.
Roadmap
Grayscale's spot WLD ETF (GWLD) is filed and awaiting SEC review; World ID for banks will be shown at Zoomtopia and Cloudflare Connect; the US Orb rollout continues; tokens sold by the Foundation in July stay locked until Jul 2027.

Token performance

1-year return (22 Oct 2025 → 21 Oct 2026, CoinGecko)
WLD
-36%
BTC
-22%
ETH
-35%

WLD fell about as much as ETH and more than BTC over 12 months. Over 3 years it is down roughly −65% to −72% (from ~$1.6 to ~$2.0 in Oct 2023, researched by hand and approximate) vs BTC ~+179% and ETH ~+53%; 3-year figures are manual because the free CoinGecko API covers 365 days.

Range 2026
$0.23 low (2 May) to $0.67 high (17 Jun), daily closes; now $0.57, +18.5% YTD
12-month drawdown
−76%, from $0.95 (27 Oct 2025) to $0.23 (2 May 2026)
Liquidity
$443M traded in 24h, ~20% of market cap (high turnover); rank #50
Relative strength
−36% over 1 year vs BTC −22% and ETH −35%; +31% in 30 days, after the World ID bank launch
ATH check ATH check passed. WLD launched in Jul 2023 and set its $11.74 high on 9 Mar 2024, about 7.5 months later, so it is not a launch spike; it is also the cycle high and is used as the reference (now −95%).

Tokenomics

Supply
10B WLD maximum; ~3.82B circulating (38%). Market cap $2.18B vs FDV $5.70B.
Emissions
About 2.9M WLD unlocks per day since 24 Jul 2026 (down 43% from ~5.1M), roughly 87M a month or ~28% of today's circulating supply per year.
Unlocks/vesting
Linear daily release: ~1.6M/day community, ~1.3M/day team and investors. Tools for Humanity contributor tokens vest until Jul 2028 (2024 schedule).
Utility
Grants to verified humans, governance, payments in World App, Orb operator rewards. World ID proofs and World Chain fees (ETH) do not need WLD.
Concentration
Team and investors still unlock ~1.3M a day; Eightco (ORBS) alone holds ~302M WLD, about 8% of circulating supply; reported OTC sales in Mar 2026.
Sinks
No burn and no buyback. Demand comes from Eightco's treasury, the Foundation's one-year locked sale and a possible US spot ETF.

Bull case

World ID becomes the default human check for banks, Zoom and AI agents, and the Grayscale ETF lists, giving WLD a regulated buyer. With unlocks cut to 2.9M a day, steady treasury and ETF demand could hold price above the $0.48 YTD start and retest the $0.67 June high.

Bear case

Products keep growing without needing WLD, while ~87M tokens a month keep hitting the market. Without the ETF or a new token sink, price slides back toward the $0.23 May low, and privacy regulators slow Orb rollouts.

Watch before the next re-run

  • SEC progress on Grayscale's GWLD spot ETF
  • Daily unlocks (~2.9M) and any team or OTC sales
  • Verified humans and any bank actually going live with World ID
  • $0.48 YTD start as support and the $0.67 June high

Where to trade

Krakenlisted

WLD against EUR · USD

24h $8.22M · ±2% depth $636.8k

OKXlisted

WLD against EUR · USDT · USDC · TRY

24h $18.1M · ±2% depth $911.5k

Largest exchanges

Exchange24h vol±2% depth
BinanceWLD/USDT$57.6M$1.28M
BithumbWLD/KRW$23.1M$821.4k
GateWLD/USDT$20.5M$994.1k
UpbitWLD/KRW$19.9M$1.09M
OKXWLD/USDT$15.9M$761.1k

Deepest DEX pools

Pool24h vol±2% depth
Uniswap V3CLWLD/USDC · World Chain$31.1k$11.9k
Uniswap V3CLWLD/WETH · World Chain$54.4k$8.91k
Uniswap V3CLWLD/USDC · World Chain$198.5k$8.50k

Pool size (TVL), fee tier and fee APR are not in yet: they need DefiLlama, which this setup cannot reach so far. CL = concentrated liquidity (higher fees, more impermanent-loss risk).

On-chain share of all WLD volume: 0.1%.

As of 21 Oct 2026 · CoinGecko tickers (24h volume, ±2% depth). ±2% depth is the money it takes to move the price 2% either way: the real size of a market. Exchanges ranked by volume among well-known venues; pools by depth. Not investment advice.

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