World Foundation raised $52.5 million through a Worldcoin (WLD) token sale, with each token sold subject to a 12-month lockup. Pantera Capital led the first close of the round, according to the foundation's announcement:

The nonprofit said the new capital will be used to expand World ID across enterprise platforms, consumer applications, and AI agents. The sale came as WLD continued to trade under pressure, with the token down more than 10% over 24 hours and 32.8% over the past 30 days.

The World Foundation( @worldcoinfnd ) raised $52.5M by selling $WLD . On-chain data shows it transferred out 217.4M $WLD , suggesting a sale price of $0.2415 per $WLD . At the same time, the World Foundation has received 47.5M $USDC . pic.twitter.com/sLybnvPMVc — Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 25, 2026

Token Sale Takes Place During WLD Price Weakness

The foundation sold new tokens while WLD was already facing sustained price pressure. Supply remains a key issue for the project. World had unlocked 4.9 billion of its 10 billion WLD supply as of April 10, according to its own tokenomics disclosure:

Daily emissions then decreased by 43% on July 24, falling from roughly 5.1 million tokens to about 2.9 million tokens. Even after that reduction, WLD has continued to underperform relative to major crypto assets.

WLD recently traded near $0.34, down more than 10% in 24 hours and 32.8% over the past 30 days. Over the same 30-day period, Bitcoin (BTC) rose 5.4%, while Ethereum (ETH) gained 14.9%. The 12-month lockup attached to the newly sold WLD means the tokens are not immediately available for resale.

The project, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman through Tools for Humanity, has also faced regulatory headwinds that have weighed on its expansion. Authorities in several jurisdictions, including Spain, Portugal, and Kenya, previously suspended or restricted Worldcoin's iris-scanning operations over data privacy concerns, though the project has since resumed operations in some of those markets.

Pantera Leads Round as Investors Back Proof of Human Thesis

Bain Capital Crypto, Eightco Holdings, Selini Capital, and Susquehanna Crypto also participated in the financing. Eightco Holdings entered the round as both a buyer and an existing holder. The Nasdaq-listed company reported 283 million WLD in its treasury as of July 8, making it the largest publicly disclosed institutional holder, according to its statement:

The latest raise follows earlier token purchases involving major crypto investors. Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto bought $135 million of WLD in May 2025. In March 2026, the foundation also sold roughly $65 million of WLD over the counter at around $0.27 per token. The pace of fundraising, with three notable sales in roughly fourteen months, underscores the foundation's continued need for operating capital as it scales Orb-verification operations and builds out World ID integrations.

Pantera described its participation as a bet on business demand for proof-of-human infrastructure rather than retail speculation.

"The need for Proof of Human is becoming acutely clear with the acceleration of AI development, and we see this in the influx of enterprise traction. We're excited to continue supporting World's mission at this inflection point in its growth." Cosmo Jiang, Pantera Capital General Partner, said.

World Foundation also framed proof of human as infrastructure that it believes the broader internet increasingly requires as AI agents and agentic tools become more common.

"As AI agents and agentic tools proliferate, the internet, and the multibillion-dollar industries that depend on it, will need a reliable way to distinguish humans from machines. Without it, advertising models built on genuine views and engagement become unreliable, dating platforms are flooded with synthetic profiles, voting systems become more difficult to validate, creative marketplaces struggle to identify original work, and video calls become vulnerable to deepfakes and impersonation," it explained.

The foundation said more than 39 million people have joined World Network, while more than 18 million have completed Orb verification. It also said the network has used more than 475 million World ID proofs. Those adoption figures place World among the largest digital-identity efforts in crypto, though the project's ability to translate network participation into sustained enterprise revenue remains an open question.

The 12-month lockup on the tokens sold in the latest round is set to expire in July 2027.