Multicoin Capital reportedly bought 60 million World Coins (WLD) in an over-the-counter transaction with the project team, betting on biometric identification protocols.
The acquisition comes amid declining investor engagement, with WLD’s price falling 21% over the past month.
Multicoin Capital doubles World Coin despite price drop
Founded in 2017, Multicoin Capital is a thesis-driven company focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain projects. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain has identified a large transaction involving a wallet reportedly associated with Multicoin Capital (0xf0007b56607BB268efFe4126655f077F8cf42696).
Multicoin Capital’s acquisition of WLD. Source: X/Lookonchain
According to on-chain data, the address transferred 30 million USDC to the Worldcoin team one day ago. Multicoin then received 60 million WLD tokens. This suggests doing an OTC trade directly with the project rather than buying on the open market.
The timing of this transaction is noteworthy as on-chain and search data shows a decline in interest in Worldcoin. Dune Analytics showed that the number of new active wallet addresses has declined sharply since September.
New world coin wallet. Source: Dune
The slowdown in new participation suggests weaker consumer demand, even as institutional investors continue to add capital. Search interest followed a similar trajectory.
According to Google Trends data, searches for “Worldcoin” peaked at 100 points in September, then dropped significantly. This surge was mainly driven by Upbit’s listing of WLD, which also boosted the token price at the time. However, since then, WorldCoin has erased those gains and search interest has dropped to a score of 6 at the time of writing.
Price trends reflect this cooling momentum. According to data from BeInCrypto Markets, WLD has lost more than 21% of its value over the past month.
At the time of writing, the token is trading at $0.49614, representing an increase of 2.57% in the past 24 hours. The short-term recovery came amid a broader market recovery, with crypto market capitalization rising nearly 0.5%.
World Coin (WLD) price performance. Source: BeInCrypto Markets
In addition to price performance, the project is also subject to increasing regulatory pressure. In late November, Thai authorities ordered World to suspend its iris-based registration activities in the country and erase biometric data collected from more than 1 million people.
The order follows an enforcement action in October in which authorities raided one of the project’s iris-scanning sites in Thailand.
“This cooperation will increase the effectiveness of law enforcement in prosecuting and suppressing unauthorized digital asset businesses, while protecting users from lack of legal protection and reducing the risks of fraud and money laundering,” said Ms. Jomkwan Consakul, SEC Deputy Secretary General.
These developments compound previous challenges. In May, the project encountered regulatory setbacks in both Indonesia and Kenya.
The article Multicoin Capital Buys 60 Million World Coins (WLD) as Retail Engagement and Price Slider appeared first on BeInCrypto.
