Sam Altman's Worldcoin Has Surged 40% Since OpenAI Launched Sora

By Stephen Graves

WLD, the token of Sam Altman's crypto-powered digital ID project Worldcoin, has surged 40% in the past day.

Worldcoin's WLD token is currently trading at $7.44, up 39.8% on the day and 185.8% in the past week, per data from CoinGecko.

The token's price surge kicked off on February 15, the same day that Altman's firm OpenAI launched text-to-video AI app Sora. Keep in mind that the projects are entirely unrelated. But Worldcoin is the only crypto project directly linked to Altman, who co-founded the company—suggesting that crypto traders are seeking exposure to the OpenAI CEO as the firm's cachet rises following the launch of Sora.

Tokens linked to artificial intelligence projects (again, with no relation to OpenAI) are also performing well in recent days. CoinGecko's aggregated category of AI coins is up over 11% in the past day and over 40% in the past week. Standout performers include SingularityNet, up 93.2% in the past week, Fetch.ai (up 48.5%  over the same period) and Ocean Protocol (up 68.1%).

Worldcoin is a crypto project aiming to create a global ID system to prove "personhood" in order to combat bots. A hardware device, the Orb, is used to scan users' irises in order to provide a unique "fingerprint," the IrisCode, which is saved on Worldcoin's blockchain. Thisis then used to generate a WorldID linked to the user.

Worldcoin's eye-scanning activities have proved contentious, with governments including Germany, France, Argentina and Kenya launching investigations into the project.  In December, the firm discontinued its Orb verification program in India, Brazil and France.

Altman's OpenAI has fared better in recent months, launching its Sora text-to-video model in a closed beta. Videos published by the firm demonstrate characters with realistic emotions, and seamless video transitions.

Earlier this month, reports indicated that Altman is in talks with investors to raise between $5 trillion and $7 trillion in funding for OpenAI, in a bid to increase global AI chip manufacturing capacity.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

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