90% went against the trend and bought after the decline? a16z and Bain spent $135 million to buy WLD

Written by: 1912212.eth, Foresight News

On May 21, World Foundation announced that its subsidiary World Assets Ltd. sold $135 million worth of WLD tokens to early supporters Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Bain Capital Crypto at market prices. Once the news was released, the price of WLD rose by more than 13% in a short period of time, reaching a high of $1.29, and the trading volume surged by 70%.

In this regard, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougam tweeted that "a16z and Bain spent a huge amount of money to buy WLD, and the price of the token has fallen by 90% in the past 14 months. I have never seen such a situation before. To be honest, this is quite interesting."

Two venture capital funds buy undiscounted tokens

According to the official announcement of Worldcoin, this is not a new round of venture capital, but two venture capital funds completed by directly purchasing undiscounted WLD tokens. Investors include well-known venture capital a16z and Bain Capital Crypto. The funds will be mainly used to accelerate the expansion of the World network, especially to support its layout in the US market, including the construction of the Orb manufacturing plant in Richardson, Texas, to mass-produce identity verification equipment for iris scanning. According to the official blog, as of April 28, 2025, the circulation of WLD is 1.3 billion, accounting for 13% of the total supply.

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

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

As of May 2025, the Worldcoin network has attracted more than 26 million users, of which 12.5 million have a World ID verified by Orb. Worldcoin already has a certain user base around the world, especially in emerging markets.

The token sale comes at a time when the overall cryptocurrency market is recovering. Bitcoin has recently hit a record high, driving up the prices of various tokens, including WLD. Worldcoin chose to conduct a large-scale token sale at this time, which not only caught the market boom, but also provided financial support for its expansion in the US market.

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

a16z and Bain are typical long-term investors. Their goal is usually to seize platform-level opportunities rather than short-term speculation. Although WLD is currently at a low point, from the perspective of technology, team and grand vision, it may be a time when its value is undervalued. Market panic and valuation mismatch are opportunities. The decline of 90% has caused many investors to panic and leave the market, but for sophisticated institutions, this may be a sign that "the price is seriously lower than the intrinsic value." They may think that the market is overreacting and that now is an ideal time to buy low and make layouts.

In addition, Worldcoin’s strong defense of privacy disputes at the Consensus 2025 conference further strengthened investors’ confidence. The team emphasized that its iris scan data is stored locally and meets privacy protection requirements. This statement has alleviated the market’s concerns about data to a certain extent.Safetyconcerns.

Expanding US market layout and technological innovation

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

In addition, Worldcoin has been making continuous moves in the financial and social fields, including the World App debit card project in cooperation with Visa and the age verification pilot on Tinder with Match Group. This has not only enhanced Worldcoin's brand influence, but also provided support for the actual use scenarios of its token WLD.

On the technical level, the launch of Worldcoin’s Orb Mini device and World ID 3.0 marks itsBlockchainand biometrics. The Orb device, powered by NVIDIA technology, efficiently scans your iris and generates a privacy-preserving digital identity, which is important in the context of fighting AI-generated content. Worldcoin 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 considerable challenges. The first is the issue of privacy. Although the team has repeatedly emphasized its data protection measures, iris scanning technology has caused controversy in many regions around the world. In early May 2025, Indonesia suspended Worldcoin operations due to privacy concerns, and Spain and Portugal have also launched investigations into its data collection methods. These regulatory pressures may limit the expansion speed of Worldcoin in certain markets. Finally, Worldcoin's business model is not yet fully mature. Although its user base is growing rapidly, it will take time to verify how to transform iris scanning technology and WLD tokens into sustainable business value.

However, Jake Brukhman, co-founder of CoinFund and one of the earliest investors in Worldcoin, is very optimistic. In a forwarded post about WLD, he said, "I first bought Bitcoin when its fully diluted valuation (FDV) was about $10 billion. That was 12 years ago, and almost all vested interests, from news media to financial institutions to governments, tried to kill it, until recently. WLD will become a more widely distributed currency and will move forward in an era with various tailwinds: including a positive regulatory environment, iOS support for encryption, and the blockchain innovations of the past 12 years are about to enter the practical application stage."

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