By Anand Sinha
Worldcoin (WLD), the cryptocurrency supporting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s blockchain project, has surged more than 50% in the last 24 hours.
The trigger for the sudden price uptick is the Pennsylvania-based Eightco Holdings (Nasdaq: OCTO) announcing a crypto treasury model to acquire Worldcoin.
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Sam Altman’s Worldcoin as a treasury asset
The feature has been heavily criticized for allegedly violating user privacy, leading to several countries curtailing its operations in their jurisdictions.
After the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum, Worldcoin has also found a home in a crypto treasury firm.
On Sep. 8, Eightco announced raising $250 million through a private placement along with an additional investment of $20 million from BitMine Immersion (NYSE: BMNR) to support the acquisition of WLD tokens. BitMine is the world’s leading Ethereum treasury firm.
The firm also announced the appointment of Wall Street’s veteran analyst Dan Ives as its new chairman.
Like many others, Eightco is also following in the footsteps of Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), the world’s first and largest Bitcoin treasury firm.
Following the announcement, Worldcoin’s price rallied more than 50% in the last 24 hours to hit an eight-month high of $2.03.
OCTO stock soars 5,700%
As reported earlier, the OCTO stock dramatically jumped as much as 5,700% to hit an intraday high of $82.98 on Sep. 8.
Once the offering closes on Sep. 11, the company intends to change the Nasdaq trading symbol of its stock from OCTO to ORBS. It is a reference to World’s orb-shaped iris scanners.
Eightco Shares Explode 3,000% in a Day, Then Dip After Hours
Eightco shares skyrocketed from $1.45 on Friday to $45.08 at Monday’s close, a gain of 3,009%, after briefly hitting an intraday high above $80.
After-hours trading saw the stock cool slightly, dropping nearly 6% to $42.40.
The company said it may also accumulate Ethereum (ETH) as a secondary asset, but its primary focus will be on Worldcoin, the controversial iris-scan-based cryptocurrency project run by World Network, formerly known as Tools for Humanity.
Eightco also announced plans to rebrand its ticker to “ORBS” to reflect its alignment with Worldcoin’s eye-scanning Orb devices, which are used to issue World IDs as proof of personhood in an increasingly AI-driven internet.
Worldcoin, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, aims to verify human identity online using biometric data. In return, users receive WLD tokens and access to a growing ecosystem of services.
While the project has gained traction, it’s also faced heavy scrutiny from regulators and privacy watchdogs, resulting in restrictions and bans in multiple countries.
“If we succeed on our mission, World might become the largest network of real people online,” Altman said in a statement.
Eightco’s move places it in the growing club of public companies diversifying into crypto treasuries, following the playbook popularized by firms like MicroStrategy and BitMine Immersion Technologies, the latter of which invested $20 million into Eightco as part of its broader crypto strategy.
