WLD Sinks After Worldcoin Moves To Replaces USDC With Native Crypto For Orb Operator Payment

WLD saw a significant decline in its value at the start of the week, as the iris biometric cryptocurrency project, Worldcoin, announced orb operators will soon start receiving the native cryptocurrency of the initiative instead of the Circle's stablecoin USD Coin (USDC).

WLD traded in the red zone following the announcement, and saw a 4.71% decline in its value at $1.53 over the past 24 hours and a -3.4% loss in the past seven days, based on the data from CoinMarketCap.

As Worldcoin, the controversial yet ambitious crypto project, aimed to increase its native cryptocurrency's circulating supply in the open market, the team announced it will change orb operator rewards from USDC to WLD.

The project used USDC-based rewards after it officially launched, which it said was a "transitional phase" that was now coming to an end.

"During a transitional phase after launch, these Operator rewards were paid in USDC. This transitional phase is now nearing its end, at which point Worldcoin Operators will instead receive rewards in the form of WLD," Worldcoin said in its announcement over the weekend.

On Oct. 10, the Worldcoin Foundation started the pilot program of giving rewards to select orb operators, or independent participants, that operate imaging devices developed by Tools For Humanity, the parent company of Worldcoin, in the form of WLD, which it said, contributed to the growing circulating supply of WLD.

The crypto project expects that the transition phase will be finally completed in November, following which, all orb operators will be paid in WLD.

"In November 2023, the Worldcoin Foundation expects that the transition process will be completed such that all Operators will receive WLD going forward," the announcement read.

WLD was launched with a low circulating supply of around 100 million WLD, largely because the team's goal was to create "a network of as many human beings as possible. To achieve this, the majority of the WLD token supply will be given to new and existing users in the form of user grants over the years to come."

Following its launch in July, the circulating supply of the WLD token surged from around 100 million to more than $134 million "due to over 800,000 Orb-verified users claiming about 34 million WLD in free grants," Worldcoin said.

WLD was trading down at $1.53 as of 8:52 a.m. ET on Monday, with a 24-hour trading volume down by 7.61% at $75,582,700, representing a 4.20% decrease in the last 24 hours and a 3.7% loss over the past seven days.

Based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap, WLD's total circulating supply stands at 134,749,328 WLD, with its value down by 3.93% at a $134,749,328 market cap.