Worldcoin, a new cryptocurrency token and digital identification project co-founded by OpenAI chief Sam Altman, soared following its launch on Monday.
The token is listed on a number of cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, but it is unavailable to trade in the U.S. due to regulatory restrictions.
It surged as much as $3.58 from its initial price of $1.70 before falling back to $2.52 around 11 am in London, according to data from CoinMarketCap as reported by Bloomberg.
Per Bloomberg, by that time about $145 million worth of the token had been traded.
Worldcoin promises to protect users’ identities by scanning their eyeballs using an “orb” verification device to distinguish humans from artificial intelligence (AI).
Alongside the launch, the company said it was scaling up its “orbing” operations to 35 cities in 20 countries.
“If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy, enable global democratic processes, and eventually show a potential path to AI-funded UBI,” Worldcoin’s co-founders Altman and Alex Blania said in a letter.
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