Sam Altman's Worldcoin Surges 15% as Investor and Team Lockup Extended

• WLD is trading at $2.457, having risen by 15% after the announcement. It is up by 26% over the past 24 hours.
• The unlock schedule for early investors and team members has been increased from three years to five years, reducing the planned rise in circulating supply.

Decentralized identity project Worldcoin has announced that it is extending lockups for early investors and team members, which has led to the project's native token (WLD) rising 15%.

WLD is now trading at $2.457, up from $2.147 when the announcement was made, compounding a daily gain of 26%, CoinDesk data shows.

"The unlock schedule for 80% of the WLD held by TFH’s (Tools for Humanity) team members and investors is being extended from 3 to 5 years," Worldcoin said in a blog post.

This means that the vesting schedule will be more gradual until 2029 as opposed to the original plan. Token unlocks are typically seen as a bearish event, as it increases circulating supply and the potential for early investors to recoup their equity by selling in the open market.

Worldcoin is the crypto project headed up by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the company raised $115 million in a Series C round last year to accelerate plans to onboard people around the world to have a Worldcoin decentralized ID.

The circulating supply of WLD is currently at 275 million, with 77% of that originally being claimed by World ID holders. Under the original schedule, the circulating supply is expected to hit 400 million in September, as opposed to August.