The price of Worldcoin has fallen over the last 24 hours as new of Sam Altman’s problems and ousting continue to spread.
The price of Worldcoin (WLD) reacted to the news in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, especially as it relates to OpenAI. WLD, the native token of the Worldcoin project, co-founded by Altman, climbed more than 9% over the last 24 hours, and traded at $2.55, according to data from CoinGecko. Data also showed that it rose more than 31% over the past week.
Unfortunately, current data at the time of this writing shows that the price of Worldcoin has also succumbed to market volatility. Although climbing very slightly over the last hour, Worldcoin’s price has fallen 6.4% over the last 7 days.
Last week, Sam Altman was ousted from his position as the CEO of OpenAI, the company that released ChatGPT last November. According to an NY Times post, OpenAI’s directors stated that the former CEO would not return to his position at the company. The note also mentioned that former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear will replace Mira Murati, the company’s interim CEO.
Shortly after Altman was ousted, Microsoft gave him a job. According to an X post from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Altman and former OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman will lead a new AI research team. In a subsequent post, Nadella expressed excitement at Altman’s onboarding, calling it a “new pace for innovation.”
Microsoft and other OpenAI investors, including Thrive Capital and Tiger Global, were pushing for the company to restore Altman’s position. Unfortunately, this did not come to pass. Although Microsoft is not on OpenAI’s board, the multinational tech giant owns about half of the company. In January, Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI, easily the company’s largest investment in its history.
Worldcoin fell 10% on Friday when the OpenAI board of directors fired Sam Altman, citing problems with transparency. In an official blog post, the board said it conducted a deliberative review process and concluded that Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board.” The board added that it no longer has confidence in Altman’s leadership.
Worldcoin has had a checkered past as regulators in several countries have banned its operations. Worldcoin is a biometric crypto project from global software and hardware company Tools for Humanity, co-founded by Altman in 2019. The Worldcoin project came under public scrutiny after it insisted that users must submit biometric data for registration, including completing iris scans. Users who complete the process receive cryptocurrency in exchange.
According to reports, more than 9,500 Argentinians registered for Worldcoin. Worldcoin’s facilitators had spread the registration across 38 different locations. Despite heavy criticism, the project did impressive numbers in the country. Despite that, Argentina joined countries like France and Germany, who are probing the company’s operations.
In August, Kenyan authorities suspended Worldcoin’s operations and then raided their warehouse a week later. Police officers left the warehouse with machines allegedly containing data collected from registrants. Worldcoin was paying Kenyans about $49 worth of crypto for registration.
