The Worldcoin token, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has experienced a significant increase of over 186% in the past week, aligning with the project’s daily user count exceeding a million.

Despite rising controversial views on its methods and regulatory issues, the project has had major growth recently and has attracted a lot of users.

Worldcoin’s World App Hits 1 Million Users

On February 18, Worldcoin shared an update on X, revealing that its cryptocurrency wallet application, known as “World App,” has achieved a milestone by attracting more than a million users. Comparatively, there were just 100,000 daily active users in November last year.

World App, the first wallet built for the Worldcoin project, passed 1M daily users this week. This community is incredible 🫡 pic.twitter.com/Mf6Y51gscQ

— Worldcoin (@worldcoin) February 17, 2024

WLD, the Worldcoin utility token, has experienced a notable surge in both price and trading volume, as reported by CoinGecko data. Presently priced at $7.27, it has seen a significant increase of 39.1% in the last 24 hours and a remarkable 186.4% over the past seven days, taking it to a new all-time high.

Concurrently, the trading volume has surged to $784,023,215, marking a 55.70% rise in the last day. Notably, the token’s growth has surpassed that of the entire crypto market, which has only grown by 6.3% in the last week.

The project’s growth comes amid several developments that are making headlines. On February 16, OpenAI introduced Sora, a text-to-video generator that allows users to create video clips and scenes using text prompts, a major advancement in AI-generated content.

A week before the Sora announcement, on February 9, Altman announced his plans to raise $7 trillion. The funds are intended to support and escalate the company’s efforts in semiconductor chip development, a critical area for advancing AI technologies.

Controversy Surrounds Worldcoin

Woldcoin, launched in July 2023 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Alex Blania, is a “privacy-preserving” digital identity verification project. The unique approach involves compensating users with its native cryptocurrency in exchange for scanning their irises.

The project aims to introduce worldwide Universal Basic Income (UBI) by distributing a modest amount of its native WLD token to everyone in exchange for identity verification. Despite its innovative approach to UBI, Worldcoin’s methodology, especially its use of biometric identity verification through metallic eye-scanning devices known as “Orbs,” has sparked considerable debate and concern.

On January 31, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) in Hong Kong initiated an investigation into Worldcoin’s local operations, citing “serious risks to personal data privacy.” This investigation led to the execution of warrants and the inspection of six premises controlled by Worldcoin in Hong Kong.

Worldcoin’s operations have also attracted attention from regulators in various jurisdictions outside of Hong Kong. The project’s services were completely suspended in Kenya, while iris scans were paused in India due to privacy concerns.