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Yesterday, Worldcoin officially announced that it will stop paying traders in the USDC stablecoin and will start doing so in the WLD crypto.
This decision is in fact a policy change that will affect the supply of WLD in circulation and therefore potentially the price.
Worldcoin’s WLD crypto to replace USDC
Currently, WLD, or Worldcoin’s cryptocurrency, is an Ethereum token.
It was launched on the crypto markets at the end of July at a price of around $2. The very day it was launched, it reached its current all-time high of $3.5, but the next day it was back down to $2.
It stayed above $2 for about two full weeks, until the 7th of August, when it began to fall.
The fall continued until mid-September, when it reached its current low of just under $1.
By the 16th the price had risen back to $1.6 and since then it has traded sideways around this level, with a high of over $1.8 at the end of September and a low of $1.2 on the 18th.
Yesterday, the price was still above $1.6, but as news of the payment in WLD to Worldcoin operators spread, the price fell to below $1.5, before rising again to $1.52.
So for the time being, the news has had little negative impact on the price, but the problem is likely to get worse in the long run.
Payment to Operators
Worldcoin Operators are independent participants who operate Orbs and custom imaging devices developed by Tools for Humanity (TFH) for the Worldcoin project.
They receive cash rewards for verifying the uniqueness of people and their actual existence as such.
During the transition period after the launch of the project, these rewards were paid in USDC stablecoin, but this transition period is over. Now the rewards will be paid in WLD.
The official statement announcing the news reads:
“As of October 10, 2023, the Operator rewards paid out in WLD are also contributing to the growing circulating supply of WLD.”
The growth of the circulating supply
The release also reports that an updated real-time chart showing the growth of the WLD token in circulation has been published on Dune.
Starting out at just over 101 million tokens, it soon grew to 119 million.
After reaching 123 million before mid-August, the increase slowed to 127 million at the end of August, 130 million just before mid-September, and 134 million on the 10th of October.
Since then, it has grown little, but at this point it seems destined to grow more.
Note that the drop in the price of WLD to below $2 started immediately after the massive creation of tokens up to the 7th August, and the drop to $1 coincided with the increase in the supply of tokens in circulation to over 130 million.
At this point, if the growth in circulating supply were to increase, it is possible that the price would be affected.
The phase of replacing USDC payments with WLD token payments, which began on the 10th of October, will end in November, at which point the growth in circulating supply could increase significantly.
However, tomorrow, Tuesday 24th October 2023, the circulating supply will be reduced by up to 25 million WLD due to the end of the first WLD token loans.
It should be noted, however, that the number of WLD tokens distributed as premiums to operators has been very small to date.
The Future of the Crypto Worldcoin (WLD) Project: Beyond USDC
It should be remembered that the current supply of WLD tokens in circulation is only just over 1.3% of the total supply of 10 billion tokens.
Of the 134 million or so WLD tokens issued so far, 100 million have been loaned to market makers, and 25 million of these are due to be returned tomorrow.
34 million have instead been distributed to users who have agreed to iris-scan identity verification, and to Orb operators.
So while the future looks bright for the WLD token in the short term, it may not be so in the medium to long term.
Instead, as far as the Worldcoin project is concerned, the present seems to be still under construction, whereas in theory it is in the long run that it should express its full potential.
Since the supply in circulation is variable and could increase in the future, the price trend of the WLD token will not necessarily reflect the trend of the Worldcoin project.
After all, WLD is primarily an exchange currency rather than a way to invest in the project.