Worldcoin is an overlooked bet on the AI IPO wave: Maelstrom

Arthur Hayes’ investment firm Maelstrom said Worldcoin could surge to as high as $5 per token over the next few months, with $WLD acting as a crypto proxy for the AI boom.

“The AI mega IPOs are coming — and it appears the market has overlooked one of the cleanest proxies,” said Maelstrom researcher Lukas Ruppert on Wednesday.

The AI boom has been in full swing in the US. OpenAI confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the SEC on May 22, targeting a public debut in September 2026, with the firm aiming to raise $60 billion with a potential valuation of up to $1 trillion.

Meanwhile, competitor Anthropic confidentially filed its draft prospectus on Monday after announcing on May 28 that it was valued at $965 billion following a fresh $65 billion funding round.

US stock markets such as the S&P 500 have reached record highs this week, primarily due to a surge in AI and memory storage company shares such as SanDisk, Micron, Seagate and Western Digital.

However, Ruppert argues that this hasn’t been reflected in the price of $WLD, though company purchasing and a change in the token unlock schedule could be catalysts for a rally.

$WLD is the native token underpinning Worldcoin, a crypto project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman aimed at creating a global digital identity and financial network that can distinguish real humans from AI bots.

Two potential catalysts for $WLD price pump

$WLD prices have been downtrending since February, with losses accelerating in March following a private sale of tokens.

Worldcoin raised $65 million via an over-the-counter round in March, selling $WLD tokens directly to private investors at a negotiated price, outside of any exchange. Of that amount, $25 million is locked for six months.

However, to protect themselves against $WLD prices dropping before their tokens unlock, buyers hedged by shorting the token on perpetual futures markets in what Ruppert described as a “textbook short overhang.”

There are two potential catalysts to reverse this mechanical and temporary overhang, he said.

Eightco (ORBS), a small publicly-traded company that has already accumulated 283 million $WLD tokens, has around $144 million in cash sitting on its balance sheet. If they use that cash to buy more of the heavily shorted tokens, it could “trigger a reflexive loop,” sending prices higher, he said.

Secondly, Worldcoin’s unlock schedule, which releases tokens to the market every day, is set to drop by 43% on July 24, which could cut a major source of selling pressure.

Related: Crypto turns ‘contrarian bet’ as AI stocks draw investor attention: Bitwise

“Capital is aggressively chasing Anthropic and OpenAI exposure,” said Ruppert. Valuations are in the hundreds of billions and trillions, but $WLD trades at $2 billion unlocked market cap, “a small cap, when it comes to AI valuations,” he added, labeling it an “asymmetric upside.”

The analyst note comes as $WLD is currently the best-performing crypto asset in the top 100 tokens by market capitalization, having surged by around 60% over the past week.

“$WLD doesn’t move often — but when it does, it moves aggressively,” he said, with Maelstrom predicting the token will reach $5 by August, a gain of around 900% from its current trading price of $0.50.

$WLD has surged over the past week. Source: TradingView

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