Worldcoin’s WLD Drops as Elon Musk Sues OpenAI

Worldcoin’s (WLD) token fell in European morning hours on Friday after a report of a lawsuit against related company OpenAI emerged.

WLD dropped 2.2% in an hour as Reuters reported technology investor Elon Musk, the owner of social-media platform X (formerly Twitter) had sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman for breach of contract, as per a Thursday filing. Musk accused them of breaching contractual agreements made when he helped found the company in 2015. Altman and Musk served as co-chairs at the time.

Altman is also a board member and co-creator of Worldcoin. The controversial project aims to scan everyone’s eyes in exchange for a digital ID and tokens. WLD was recently 1.76% lower over 24 hours while the CD20, a gauge of the wider crypto market, had lost 0.57%.

In January 2023, Microsoft (MSFT) said it was making a "multiyear, multibillion dollar investment" into the company to "accelerate AI breakthroughs to ensure these benefits are broadly shared with the world." The software giant does not own a stake in OpenAI, Reuters reported in December.

The lawsuit says it aims to ensure the company does not develop technology aimed at benefiting specific people or companies, but to stick with its founding vision of benefiting all of humanity, the Financial Times reported.

In the past year, AI tokens have tended to move when there are developments in the broader artificial intelligence industry. In February, several AI tokens rallied after chipmaker Nvidia beat fourth-quarter earnings estimates and OpenAI released a new text-to-video product.

UPDATE (March 1, 13:09 UTC): Adds relationship with Microsoft in fourth paragraph, token 24-hour performance in third.