Peak drops 97% but continues to be sold, with Sam Altman's World Foundation cashing out $65 million worth of assets off the books.

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

As WLD hits a new all-time low, the foundation behind it has chosen to offload over 239 million tokens at this time, cashing out $65 million. The average transaction price is approximately $0.27, down more than 97% from the peak of $11.82 in March 2024, and well below last year’s financing price of $1.13 in May. Additionally, a large-scale unlocking event covering 52.5% of the total supply is scheduled for July 23, indicating that supply pressure remains significant.

Last Saturday, Sam Altman’s World Foundation announced on the X platform that its token issuance department, World Assets, completed an OTC bulk transaction, selling a total of $65 million worth of WLD tokens to four counterparties, with the first settlement date set for March 20.

The transaction’s average price of about $0.27 implies that approximately 239 million WLD tokens changed hands. Following the announcement, the WLD price briefly fell to a historic low of $0.24 before rebounding slightly to around $0.27, with an increase of approximately 0.28% as of the time of reporting.

Since reaching its peak, the price has fallen by 97%, and the pressure from discounted financing 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 by selling tokens at an average price of about $1.13 from institutions such as Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto. The current OTC average price of $0.27 is roughly one-quarter of that previous financing price.

Compared to the historic peak of approximately $11.82 in March 2024, the current price has declined by over 97%. The World Foundation stated in a declaration that the proceeds from this sale will be used for “core project operations, research and development, production of iris scanning devices (orb), and ecosystem development.”

Figure: Data source

Regarding the funding structure, $25 million of the $65 million corresponds to tokens with a six-month lock-up period, while the remaining portion is in immediate circulation, making short-term selling pressure unavoidable.

A massive unlocking event is imminent in July, and supply pressure has yet to reach its peak.

According to data from DefiLlama, 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, and if market liquidity does not keep pace, the token price will face further challenges.

The foundation’s decision to conduct off-exchange sales near the token’s historical lows, while the lock-up arrangements somewhat mitigate immediate selling pressure, has also led to expectations that the July unlocking will form one of the structural price caps.

Regulatory headwinds persist, with multiple countries’ regulatory agencies launching investigations.

In addition to price pressures, World faces increasing global regulatory resistance. In October 2025, the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission, in cooperation with the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, conducted a raid on an iris scanning site associated with World in Thailand, alleging it may have been operating without a digital asset license, and investigations are ongoing.

Previously, Indonesia suspended World ID registrations; Brazil explicitly banned its operations citing compliance with personal biometric data processing regulations; Germany and Kenya have also initiated investigations. The geographical spread of regulatory scrutiny has significantly limited the project’s expansion speed.