Maelstrom, the investment firm led by Arthur Hayes, argues that Worldcoin’s WLD token could surge to as much as $5 in the coming months, framing WLD as a clean proxy for the AI mega IPO wave. The note positions the token as a relatively overlooked lever in a market that is increasingly pricing in AI-driven growth and corporate AI infrastructure shifts.
“The AI mega IPOs are coming — and it appears the market has overlooked one of the cleanest proxies,” said Lukas Ruppert, a Maelstrom researcher, on Wednesday.
The AI boom has been accelerating in the United States. OpenAI confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the SEC on May 22, targeting a public debut in September 2026, with the firm aiming to raise $60 billion and a potential valuation of up to $1 trillion. Meanwhile, Anthropic confidentially filed its draft prospectus after announcing on May 28 that it was valued at $965 billion following a fresh $65 billion funding round. US stock markets have risen this week, aided by AI‑related gains in memory storage and chipmakers as well as broader tech sentiment.
Ruppert argues that this AI fervor has not yet fully reflected in WLD’s price, even as near-term developments around Worldcoin and its token dynamics could tilt sentiment. He points to two potential catalysts that could reverse the current overhang and tilt WLD higher.
Worldcoin positions itself as a project intended to create a global digital identity and financial network capable of distinguishing real humans from AI bots. Co‑founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the project has attracted mainstream attention as the AI ecosystem expands beyond pure software into identity, verification, and on-chain participation use cases.
Against a backdrop of heavyweight AI funding rounds and planned public listings, WLD has traded in a risk‑premium corridor. Ruppert notes that capital is increasingly chasing exposure to AI leaders such as OpenAI and Anthropic, whose valuations are in the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, while WLD’s currently unlocked market cap sits at what he sees as a much smaller, “asymmetric upside” opportunity around $2 billion.
As a gauge of momentum, WLD has been among the stronger performers within the top‑100 crypto assets by market cap, rallying roughly 60% over the past week in market activity tracked by price feeds such as TradingView.
The two primary catalysts outlined by Maelstrom centre on supply dynamics and capital allocation flow.
First, Eightco ORBS — a small publicly traded company that has accumulated a sizable stash of Worldcoin tokens — reportedly holds about 283 million WLD and has around $144 million in cash on its balance sheet. Ruppert suggests that if Eightco deploys a portion of that cash to buy additional WLD, it could ignite a reflexive price loop, where rising demand from a buyer with large holdings pushes the price higher and draws in more buyers.
Second, Worldcoin’s unlock schedule is set to tighten the flow of new tokens into the market. Beginning on July 24, the daily unlocks are expected to fall by roughly 43%, a move that could meaningfully reduce near‑term selling pressure and support price stability or upside in the weeks ahead.
Ruppert frames these dynamics within a broader investor context: “Capital is aggressively chasing Anthropic and OpenAI exposure,” and while AI valuations sit in the hundreds of billions or trillions, WLD’s market exposure is comparatively modest. If buyers step in and selling pressure eases, the upside could be outsized relative to the token’s current liquidity profile.
From a price action perspective, Maelstrom’s note argues that WLD tends to move decisively when it moves at all. The firm projects a path to $5 by August, representing roughly a fivefold increase from a current price around $0.50 and implying a substantial, if volatile, upside against an otherwise cautious backdrop for smaller cap crypto assets.
These views come as Worldcoin remains a controversial and closely watched project within the broader AI economy, where investors weigh the potential utility of global identity networks against regulatory and privacy considerations, as well as the practical challenges of mass adoption.
The AI rally has spilled over into equity markets and crypto alike, with AI‑driven earnings and investment narratives shaping sentiment across tech sectors. While OpenAI and Anthropic are poised to shape the AI software and services landscape, Worldcoin’s broader ambition sits at the intersection of identity verification and decentralized finance, a combination that could unlock novel on‑chain participation if consumer trust and data privacy concerns are addressed effectively.
For traders and long‑term holders, the key will be watching how any large corporate purchasing of WLD, particularly by Eightco ORBS or similar entities, interacts with the token’s unlocking cadence and market liquidity. The July 24 unlock reduction is a tangible near‑term event to monitor, as it could alter the supply‑demand balance in a market that has shown sensitivity to token flow dynamics.
As the AI IPO narrative evolves, investors may increasingly treat WLD as a test case for how digital identity and tokenized access could intersect with mainstream AI monetization. If the catalysts highlighted by Maelstrom begin to take hold, WLD could emerge from a low‑volatility phase into a more responsive trading regime, though both upside potential and downside risk remain highly contingent on broader regulatory, technological, and market developments.
What to watch next: the pace of private and strategic purchases in WLD, any shifts in Eightco ORBS’ capital deployment, and the actual timing and impact of the Worldcoin unlock changes going into late summer. These elements will shape whether the $5 target remains plausible or if the market requires a longer runway to assess Worldcoin’s role in the AI economy.
This article was originally published as Maelstrom: Worldcoin an Overlooked Bet in the AI IPO Wave on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.
