How Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Engineered Its Token Launch

A lot of ink has been spilled about Sam Altman’s controversial crypto startup Worldcoin and the two million people who have had their eyeballs scanned to gain access to tokens. But an overlooked part of Worldcoin’s token launch is what it’s doing to promote trading of its new tokens.

On Monday, Worldcoin sent 43 million worldcoins to people who signed up as part of the pre-launch period. But most of the tokens distributed in the launch aren’t going to those users. Instead, 100 million tokens are being loaned to market makers, or trading firms that buy and sell large amounts of tokens and make money on the spread.