It’s been a volatile weekend for WLD, the native token of Sam Altman’s biometric crypto project Worldcoin, after the drama surrounding the unceremonious ousting of the OpenAI chief executive by its board of directors.
The OpenAI board fired Altman as CEO on Friday, citing that he failed to be “candid in his communications,” without elaborating on a reason for the decision. The price of WLD, which launched earlier this year, dropped 12% following the news.
Not long after Altman’s departure, several high profile investors in OpenAI called for his reinstatement, including Microsoft which has poured $10 billion in funding into the firm. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was shocked and “furious” at the development, according to a report from Bloomberg.
As of late Sunday evening, Altman was said to be in talks with the board to work out the conditions for his return. In a post on X, he was pictured at the OpenAI offices wearing a guest badge.
first and last time i ever wear one of these pic.twitter.com/u3iKwyWj0a
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 19, 2023
The price of WLD is now up 20% over 24 hours, and was trading around $2.42 at the time of writing.
The Worldcoin project itself has little to do with OpenAI, or its most popular service ChatGPT, but rather, is a biometric cryptocurrency project that aims to be the world’s largest decentralized identity network. It was founded by Altman and two others in 2019, and is backed by Silicon Valley Venture Capital giant Andreessen Horowitz.
Here's to the greatest technological, economic & productivity boom since the internet 🫡 pic.twitter.com/NjrxMNkbH1
— Worldcoin (@worldcoin) November 19, 2023