Worldcoin (WLD), the biometric identity token backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, surged by more than 31%, from a daily low of $1.24 to a high of $1.63 after the World Network announced a $135 million investment by top-tier VC firms Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Bain Capital Crypto.

It marks a pivotal moment for the project, which is looking to scale its U.S. operations amid growing demand for AI-proof human verification.

Funding to Fuel Expansion

The capital injection, disclosed in a blog post on May 21, was structured as a private token sale and will support World Network’s aggressive U.S. rollout. This includes deploying 7,500 iris-scanning Orbs across the country to reach as many as 180 million Americans by the end of the year.

“This funding opportunity is in service to the long-term mission of World and is backed by the builders who believed in World from the beginning,” the team stated.

Last month, the project launched in six cities: Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco. Users in these locations can now receive WLD tokens in exchange for biometric verification via Orb.

The cryptocurrency grants access to several features, including token-backed loans, prediction markets, and a soon-to-be-launched Visa card for real-world spending. According to the project team, its global user base has climbed to more than 26 million, and it has already issued 12.5 million Orb-verified IDs.

Despite the momentum, World continues to face scrutiny. Privacy concerns have led to legal clashes in Germany and Brazil, while Singaporean lawmakers have raised red flags over biometric data handling and account misuse. However, the company insists scans are anonymized and deleted after verification.

The project has had mixed success recently, navigating operational suspensions in Kenya and Hong Kong, while entering a partnership with Match Group for age verification on Tinder in Japan, which observers say points to a strategic pivot toward practical use cases.

Market Dynamics

Meanwhile, a recent Tokenomist report revealed that more than 37 million WLD tokens with a market value north of $35 million were unlocked between May 5 and May 12.

The expected sell pressure from the unlocks seems not to have affected short-term price stability as much as anticipated, with WLD trading at around $1.54 at the time of writing. The current price marks a sharp 164% rebound from its all-time low recorded in early April.

Additionally, over the past week alone, the asset has jumped 31.4%, outperforming both the broader crypto market, which rose 6.5% in that period, and its smart contract platform peers, which are up just 6.8%.