Worldcoin Price Spins as World ID Faces Pushback

• Worldcoin's $WLD token has experienced severe volatility, dropping 25% in one week and leaving 84% of investors at a potential loss.
• While the token has rebounded slightly, it remains significantly below its March peak of $11.64, showing lingering instability.
• Worldcoin's World ID, based on retina scanning, has raised concerns about privacy and data security in vulnerable regions like Latin America.
• Expansion into areas with known privacy issues has led to a backlash, as experts worry the technology could exploit vulnerable populations without sufficient oversight.

1. Promote a new, privacy-focused token across Latin American countries and places with known privacy and security risks.
2. Act surprised when people complain and the market value of your project plummets.
3. Profit??

Worldcoin hasn't made it to step three. Instead, the past few weeks have seen nearly 84% of investors at a potential loss.

Despite support and millions in investment from OpenAI's Sam Altman, Worldcoin is facing performance setbacks and pushback on its biometrics technology, World ID.

Let's dig a little deeper.

$WLD Token Drops, Then Recovers

$WLD lost 25% of its value in a week. It dropped 10% in 24 hours on October 3.

After that brutal one-week stretch, the token stabilized; it's currently trading just under $2, roughly where it started a week earlier.

Source: Coinmarketcap

Token price recovery is one thing, but investors got hammered in a four-day stretch where short position liquidations met or exceeded long positions.

The kicker came on October 6, when short liquidations exceeded long ones by 3:1, according to data from Coinglass.

Some reports indicate that during that stretch, 84% of Worldcoin investors were at a loss.

Crypto comes and goes, and $WLD may continue to rebound. But with its value far below its March 2024 peak of $11.64, it'sworth considering whether $WLD's woes go beyond simple market volatility.

Mixed Reaction to World ID Promotion

Worlcoin doesn't provide liquidity markets, give access to advanced Web3 tools, or even provide a gaming platform.

Worldcoin doesn't offer staking.

Instead, $WLD is the rare crypto project with a clearly stated program for real-world utility through its World ID.

And that might be the problem.

World ID uses retina scanning with proprietary tech - The Orb' - to verify individuals. The idea is to create a blockchain-supported universal ID that can integrate with online and hardware systems around the world.

A blockchain-based, private, and secure passport sounds like a great idea and drew immediate interest. It reached 10M users on the Worldcoin app within one year.

But while the idea is great, Worldcoin struggled with the rollout, with pushback and outright opposition from regulatory agencies and governments.

Their focus on areas with known security and privacy issues makes sense on paper; these are the people who need a universal, verifiable ID the most.

But actually reaching those populations has proved problematic.

Worldcoin's recent moves have drawn mixed reactions, particularly with its expansion into Mexico. Tools for Humanity (the project's operator) set up biometric verification centers in Puebla and plans to expand in Guatemala and across Latin America.

However, experts worry this initiative might exploit vulnerable populations without adequate regulatory oversight, compromising personal data.

Retinal data is extremely personal (and valuable) data, and there are concerns over the ethics of gathering such data from people who might not fully understand the implications.

Conclusion: Regulations Impact Worldcoin's Performance

To date, Worldcoin seems to be working around various regulatory issues.

That has led the company to expand in Latin America while drawing back in Europe, where it faces increasing obstacles.

Those struggles impact token performance. Precisely because $WLD is a token with a clear use case, until that use case takes off, the token itself will likely remain volatile.

References

• WLD Open Interest (Coinglass)
• Crypto: Worldcoin Massacres Its Investors, 84% In Losses (Cointribune)
• Sam Altman's Worldcoin Takes Aim At Asia (MSN)

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