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Worldcoin, the controversial crypto project co-created by Sam Altman, has today announced the launch of its WLD token — which it will distribute to more than two million people around the world.

The project is among the crypto sector’s most divisive. Its focus is on helping people prove their identity online with credentials verified in person by iris-scanning orbs. More than two million people — the bulk of them in the Global South — have already been verified, and all of them stand to receive their share of the WLD token today.

“It’s a really, really big day for the project on Monday,” said Tiago Sada, head of product, engineering and design at Worldcoin’s main developer, Tools For Humanity. “Hopefully, we will see a lot of people excited to visit the orbs that will start showing up in a bunch of different cities around the world.”

Today’s launch comes after multiple delays and lands at a precarious time for token issuers, with regulators in the United States growing increasingly aggressive towards operators in the sector. Worldcoin’s team has been careful to stress that its tokens will not be available in the U.S.

“There’s a lot of different components to the project,” Sada said. “We offer each of those where we can and where we feel quite confident that we’re being respectful of each country’s rules.”

In today’s announcement, Worldcoin promised to accelerate sign-ups by deploying orbs in more than 35 cities across 20 countries globally. The Block revealed in March that Worldcoin had signed a deal with contract manufacturer Jabil to ramp up production of the controversial devices. Sada said the number of orbs in circulation would increase from roughly 200 to around 1,500 by year-end.

People who have been verified by an orb will initially receive 25 WLD tokens, as well as periodic grants going forward. As of today, people will also be able to reserve tokens on the World App until they’re able to visit an orb, Sada said.

An investor deck prepared by Worldcoin in December 2022, the contents of which The Block reported previously, states that there will be a total supply of 10 billion WLD tokens, with 80% reserved for users, operators and the ecosystem, and 20% set aside for the Worldcoin team and its backers. 

The token launch comes after Worldcoin completed its migration to the OP Mainnet, a Layer 2 scaling solution, last week.

The age of AI 

Worldcoin co-founder Altman is simultaneously the CEO of OpenAI, creator of the wildly successful ChatGPT. In numerous blog posts and announcements, the Worldcoin team has framed the project as urgent in the context of the rapid rise of tools like ChatGPT and the implications they may have for the future of work.

In a written statement in today’s announcement, Alex Blania, CEO of Tools for Humanity, said, “In the age of AI, the need for proof of personhood is no longer a topic of serious debate; instead, the critical question is whether or not the proof of personhood solutions we have can be privacy-first, decentralized and maximally inclusive.”

The project and its backers have mooted a wide array of possible use cases for the protocol and its verified credentials, including in uncollateralized lending programs, for universal basic income models and even in the metaverse — virtual worlds underpinned by blockchain.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

In response to the claim that an appeal from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Ripple Labs case could be a setback for XRP, crypto lawyer John E. Deaton stated that “an appeal is not even close to a setback.”

Elaborating, the Crypto Law founder explained his belief that “it will be two years from now before a decision is issued by the 2nd Circuit, if it’s appealed,” adding: “The Torres Decision is the law until then — at least in the 2nd Circuit.”

If or when an appeal comes in the Ripple case, it would go to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Deaton: Torres ‘could likely still rule the same exact way’

Deaton’s take comes after SEC lawyers used a separate ongoing enforcement case — against Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon — to preview its expected appeal of last week’s split decision in the agency’s case against Ripple Labs.

“Respectfully, those portions of Ripple were wrongly decided, and this Court should not follow them,” SEC lawyers argued in a Friday filing to Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The portion of the Ripple decision likely to be appealed is that which determined that “blind bid” or “programmatic” sales of XRP to third parties did not fit all the criteria of a securities offering.

To this point, Deaton tweeted that “even if the 2nd Circuit said Torres was wrong regarding her application of the 3rd Howey factor […] that doesn’t mean the SEC wins on Programmatic sales (sales on exchanges).”

“All that happens is that Torres then applies the other two factors and could likely still rule the same exact way, concluding the SEC didn’t satisfy the common enterprise factor,” he said, before opining: “Don’t let anyone underestimate how significant this win is for XRP, XRP holders and Ripple.”

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Adventure Gold’s token has experienced volatile price action after trading above $1.40 on July 20 before subsequently falling to $0.76 on the following day — sparking conversation about potential market manipulation.

One prominent Bybit trader, who goes by DeFi^2, noted today that “all three top-ranked accounts on the Bybit 24-hour leaderboard right now joined in the last five days, only traded AGLD and made seven figures profit” — statements seemingly bolstered by an examination of Bybit’s leaderboards.

“Clearly some bad actors in the market right now — be careful if trading low market cap perps,” they added.

Adventure Gold is the in-game currency for the Loot NFT project. It is currently the 396th-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.

The price of Adventure Gold’s token fell off a cliff after a significant surge. Source: TradingView

Low-cap altcoins experiencing violent price swings

Adventure Gold’s token is not the only low-cap cryptocurrency experiencing suspect price action.

Crypto cash-back project StormX’s token has seemingly experienced market manipulation amid what a Binance customer service rep calls an “emergency incident of the STMX contract.”

Over the past 24 hours, the 268th-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko, surged from $0.0063 to nearly $0.015 before retracing fully.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Crypto cash-back project StormX’s token has seemingly experienced market manipulation amid what a Binance customer service rep calls an “emergency incident of the STMX contract.”

“Regarding the emergency incident of the STMX contract, the relevant team is dealing with it urgently,” a Twitter-translated tweet from @sisibinance reads.

The tweet, in translation, continues: “Further information will be synchronized with you later. Please enter the online customer service to fill out the appeal form.”

Neither Sisi nor StormX immediately responded to a request for comment.

StormX’s token is the 268th-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko. Over the past 24 hours, the STMX price surged from $0.0063 to nearly $0.015.

The price of StormX’s token surged before immediately collapsing today. Source: TradingView

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Crypto payments processor Alphapo — which processes payments for HypeDrop, Bovada, Ignition and other gambling services — has had its hot wallets drained for at least $23 million on Ethereum, Tron and Bitcoin, according to ZachXBT.

The funds stolen on Ethereum were swapped for ether before being bridged to Avalanche and Bitcoin, the on-chain sleuth noted.

The amount of bitcoin stolen from Alphapo is currently undetermined.

HypeDrop disables withdrawals

Alphapo customer HypeDrop has disabled withdrawals.

“Our provider is currently working to solve some recent issues from their side; they are facing problems specifically related to withdrawals of BTC, ETH, and TRX, as well as deposits for ETH and TRX,” the project’s verified Twitter account stated in multiple replies.

“We are actively monitoring the situation with them and will provide you with an update when more information is available,” it added, before noting that “if your payment has been affected, your funds are secure.”

HypeDrop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.