--- title: Sam Altman’s biometric startup World raises $52.5M via... description: World, the biometric identity startup co-founded by Sam Altman, has raised $52.5 million through a crypto token sale of its WLD token to strategic investors... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/sam-altman-s-biometric-startup-world-raises-52-5m-via-crypto-sale-bmyeajs1q twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Sam Altman’s biometric startup World raises $52.5M via crypto sale | daily.dev og:description: World, the biometric identity startup co-founded by Sam Altman, has raised $52.5 million through a crypto token sale of its WLD token to strategic investors... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/sam-altman-s-biometric-startup-world-raises-52-5m-via-crypto-sale-bmyeajs1q og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/BmYEAJS1q.png og:image:alt: Sam Altman’s biometric startup World raises $52.5M via crypto sale og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Sam Altman’s biometric startup World raises $52.5M via crypto sale **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary World, the biometric identity startup co-founded by Sam Altman, has raised $52.5 million through a crypto token sale of its WLD token to strategic investors including Pantera Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, and others. Buyers agreed to a 12-month lockup period. Funds will go to the World Foundation in the Cayman Islands to support network expansion. World's core product is a 'proof of human' system using iris-scanning Orb devices to issue anonymous World IDs that distinguish humans from bots. Despite recent app updates and partnerships with Tinder, Zoom, and DocuSign, the company has struggled to scale and conducted layoffs in June 2026. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [World Foundation raises $52 million in token sale to scale proof-of-human infrastructure](https://daily.dev/posts/world-foundation-raises-52-million-in-token-sale-to-scale-proof-of-human-infrastructure-btr30zvvq) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [U.S. companies back Sam Altman’s World ID even as much of the world pushes back](https://daily.dev/posts/u-s-companies-back-sam-altman-s-world-id-even-as-much-of-the-world-pushes-back-rvex6p8lh) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [World launches its ‘super app,’ including crypto pay and encrypted chat features](https://daily.dev/posts/world-launches-its-super-app-including-crypto-pay-and-encrypted-chat-features-oqthvdftk) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [As OpenAI files for IPO, Sam Altman’s eye-scanning company is doing layoffs, report says](https://daily.dev/posts/as-openai-files-for-ipo-sam-altman-s-eye-scanning-company-is-doing-layoffs-report-says-vdllvgxlx) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#crypto](https://daily.dev/tags/crypto) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/sam-altman-s-biometric-startup-world-raises-52-5m-via-crypto-sale-bmyeajs1q) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Sam Altman’s biometric startup World raises $52.5M via crypto sale","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/sam-altman-s-biometric-startup-world-raises-52-5m-via-crypto-sale-bmyeajs1q","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/sam-altman-s-biometric-startup-world-raises-52-5m-via-crypto-sale-bmyeajs1q"},"datePublished":"2026-07-24T16:15:58.394Z","dateModified":"2026-07-24T17:03:03.664Z","description":"World, the biometric identity startup co-founded by Sam Altman, has raised $52.5 million through a crypto token sale of its WLD token to strategic investors...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8fc22e314596d36778714c4919840334?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8fc22e314596d36778714c4919840334?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCrunch","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCrunch","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/sam-altman-s-biometric-startup-world-raises-52-5m-via-crypto-sale-bmyeajs1q","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"crypto","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCrunch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Sam Altman’s biometric startup World raises $52.5M via crypto sale"}]} ```