Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

As WLD hits a historic low, the foundation behind it has chosen to sell over 239 million tokens off-market at this time, cashing out 65 million dollars. The average transaction price is about 0.27 dollars, shrinking over 97% from the peak of 11.82 dollars in March 2024, and is also significantly lower than the financing price of 1.13 dollars in May last year. A large-scale unlocking covering 52.5% of the total supply is also set to happen on July 23, and the supply pressure is far from over.

Last Saturday, the World Foundation under Sam Altman announced on the X platform that its token issuance department, World Assets, has completed a large off-market (OTC) transaction, selling WLD tokens worth 65 million dollars to four counterparties, with the first delivery date set for March 20.

The average transaction price of about 0.27 dollars means about 239 million WLD tokens changed hands. After the news was released, the WLD price briefly dropped to a historic low of 0.24 dollars, and then slightly rebounded to around 0.27 dollars, with an increase of about 0.28% as of the time of publication.

Down 97% since peak, discounted financing pressure continues to accumulate

This is not the first time the World Foundation has sold tokens at low prices. In May 2025, the foundation raised 135 million dollars at an average price of about 1.13 dollars from institutions such as Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto. The current OTC average price of 0.27 dollars is roughly a quarter of the financing price at that time.

Compared to the historic peak of about 11.82 dollars in March 2024, the current price has declined over 97%. The World Foundation stated in its announcement that the proceeds from this sale will be used for "core project operations, research and development, iris scanning device (orb) production, and ecosystem construction."

Image:Data source

In terms of financial structure, of the 65 million dollars, 25 million dollars are tied to tokens with a six-month lock-up period, while the remainder is in immediate circulation, making short-term selling pressure non-negligible.

Super-large-scale unlocking in July is imminent, and supply pressure has yet to peak

According to DefiLlama data, the total supply of WLD is 10 billion tokens, of which about 52.5% will be unlocked on July 23. This is the largest community token unlocking plan to date; if market liquidity does not keep pace, the token price will face further tests.

The foundation chose to conduct off-market sales near the historical low of the token; although the lock-up arrangement has somewhat alleviated immediate selling pressure, the expectation of the July unlocking has already constituted one of the structural caps on price.

Regulatory headwinds persist, and regulatory agencies in multiple countries have initiated investigations

In addition to price pressure, World is also facing escalating global regulatory resistance. In October 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand, in conjunction with the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, raided an iris scanning site affiliated with World in the country, citing that it might be operating without a digital asset license, and the relevant investigation is ongoing.

Previously, Indonesia had suspended the registration of World ID, while Brazil explicitly prohibited its operation on the grounds of compliance with individual biometric data processing, and Germany and Kenya have also launched investigations. The geographical spread of regulatory pressure has significantly restricted the project's expansion pace.