Multicoin Capital buys 60 million Worldcoin (WLD) tokens amid the price collapse
According to reports, Multicoin Capital has purchased 60 million Worldcoin (WLD) tokens in an OTC transaction with the project team, betting on the biometric identity protocol.
The purchase arrives during a period of lower investor activity, with the price of WLD plummeting by 21% in the last month.
Multicoin Capital bets even more on Worldcoin despite the price drop
Founded in 2017, Multicoin Capital is a thesis-driven firm that specializes in cryptocurrency and blockchain projects. The analysis firm Lookonchain identified a large transaction related to a wallet that reportedly belongs to Multicoin Capital (0xf0007b56607BB268efFe4126655f077F8cf42696).
According to on-chain data, the address transferred 30 million USDC to the Worldcoin team a day prior. Subsequently, Multicoin received 60 million WLD tokens, suggesting a direct OTC deal with the project and not a purchase on the open market.
The timing of the transaction draws attention, as data and search engines show reduced interest in Worldcoin. Dune Analytics indicated that the number of new active wallet addresses has declined sharply since September.
The slowdown in new participants indicates weaker retail demand, although institutional investors continue to accumulate. Interest in searches has followed a similar pattern.
Google Trends data revealed that searches for "Worldcoin" dropped significantly after reaching a score of 100 in September. That peak was primarily due to the WLD listing on Upbit, which also boosted the token's price at the time. However, since then, Worldcoin has lost those gains, and search interest has fallen to a score of 6 at the time of editing.
The price action reflects this reduced momentum. According to BeInCrypto Markets data, the WLD price has dropped more than 21% over the past month.
As of the time of writing this article, the token was trading at $0.49614, recording a 2.57% increase over the past 24 hours. This short-term rebound occurs in the context of a general market recovery, where the total cryptocurrency market capitalization has risen by nearly 0.5%.
In addition to its price performance, the project is also facing increasing regulatory pressure. At the end of November, Thai authorities ordered World to suspend its iris registration activities and delete biometric data collected from over 1 million people.
This order was issued after an action in October, when officials raided one of the project's iris scanning centers in Thailand.
"This collaboration will improve law enforcement effectiveness in processing and shutting down unlicensed digital asset businesses, while also protecting users from lack of legal protection and reducing risks of fraud and money laundering," said Ms. Jomkwan Kongsakul, General Deputy Secretary of the SEC.
These events add to previous challenges. In May, the project faced regulatory hurdles in both Indonesia and Kenya.
