World Foundation, the nonprofit behind the Sam Altman-backed World Network, has raised $52.5 million through a sale of locked WLD tokens to strategic investors.
LATEST: 💰 The World Foundation raised $52.5M in a Pantera Capital-led token sale to scale the World ID "proof of human" network, with the WLD sold locked for 12 months. pic.twitter.com/EzTbttb8Cr
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) July 25, 2026
Pantera Capital led the round, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Eightco Holdings, Selini Capital and Susquehanna Crypto. The tokens sold are subject to a 12-month lockup period.
The money will go toward expanding World ID, the network’s system for verifying that online users are real humans rather than AI bots or automated agents.
World ID works by having users scan their biometrics at a physical device called an Orb. The Orb issues a digital credential that confirms a person’s identity without storing personal data.
World says more than 39 million people have joined its network. Of those, over 18 million have been verified through an Orb device. The network has processed more than 475 million World ID proofs since launch.
The project was originally created by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, alongside Max Novendstern and Tools for Humanity CEO Alex Blania. It has faced regulatory scrutiny in several countries over its biometric data collection practices.
World says it is moving away from basic network growth and toward scaling real-world utility. The new funds will be used to plug its identity technology into enterprise software and AI agent platforms.
“The need for Proof of Human is becoming acutely clear with the acceleration of AI development,” said Cosmo Jiang, General Partner at Pantera Capital.
This is not World’s first major fundraise. The network raised $135 million in May 2025 in a private token sale to a16z and Bain Capital Crypto.
WLD is currently trading at around $0.37 with a market cap of just over $1.3 billion.
The raise comes as broader investment in AI and crypto infrastructure continues to grow. Paradigm raised a $1.2 billion fund in July to invest across crypto, AI and robotics. Framework Ventures closed a $400 million fund in June with a similar mandate.
Coinbase also recently introduced tools to let businesses accept USDC payments from autonomous AI agents. The company said AI-generated traffic surpassed human traffic on its developer documentation for the first time last month.
World’s latest raise puts it at the center of a growing push to verify human identity online as AI-generated content becomes harder to detect.
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