Worldcoin (WLD) saw a sharp drop in its market price on Saturday after founder Sam Altman was ousted as CEO of popular artificial intelligence company OpenAI. This development follows heavy regulatory scrutiny of the crypto project due to privacy concerns.
OpenAI votes out Sam Altman, citing loss of trust
In a shocking development on Friday, OpenAI announced a leadership change, stating that Sam Altman will immediately leave the company as CEO.
In this statement, the company expressed its gratitude to Altman for his tremendous contribution to their development during his four-year tenure as global leader.
However, after an intensive review process by the board of directors, it was concluded that Worldcoin’s founder had not been completely honest in his discussions with the board of directors, leading to a loss of confidence in his ability to continue his duties as CEO.
Following Altman’s departure, OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will now act as interim CEO pending the appointment of a permanent successor.
However, as you might expect, the removal of Altman as CEO of OpenAI, combined with the scathing statements in the company’s announcement, has created negative sentiment around the Worldcoin project.
According to data from CoinMarketCapWLD is currently down 12.75% in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the token’s daily trading volume has managed to stay afloat with a gain of 15.13%.
What next for Worldcoin?
Worldcoin was officially launched in July with the aim of creating the largest digital identity and financial network. The project relies on the use of iris scanning bulbs to physically admit new members, raising concerns about privacy, anonymity and protection of user data.
Following Altman’s departure from OpenAI, there is currently speculation about the future trajectory of Worldcoin. Clearly, Worldcoin benefited from Altman’s visibility as CEO of OpenAI, as reflected in the token’s current downward trend.
Notably, WLD rose more than 25% in October, with many analysts citing anticipation from the OpenAI developer conference in November as a driving force.
Therefore, Altman’s removal from OpenAI may not bode well for Worldcoin in terms of credibility and public investor sentiments. On the other hand, Worldcoin could quickly recover from the market downturn and soar to greater heights despite this new challenge.
After its public official launch in July, Worldcoin received heavy criticism from global regulators who raised concerns about its data collection operations using iris scanning spheres and the potential uses of user data.
Notably, Worldcoin has been suspended from Kenya, while the governments of the United Kingdom and Germany have opened investigations into the operation of the project.
However, despite these regulatory hurdles, the crypto project has remained resilient, marking a milestone of 4 million app downloads and 1 million monthly active users, as reported earlier in November.
At the time of writing, WLD is trading at $1.85, down 0.86% in the last hour. Meanwhile, the token’s market cap is valued at $211.37 million.
WLD trading at $1.874 on the daily chart | Source: WLDUSDT chart on Tradingview.com
Featured image from The Independent, chart from Tradingview