World, the biometric ID project formerly known as Worldcoin, is now live in the US

Biometric ID project World, formerly known as Worldcoin, is now live in the US, expanding into six cities after years of avoiding local exposure.

Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco are the first rollout zones, where users can now get scanned by an Orb, receive a World ID, and claim WLD tokens via airdrop through the World App.

In a blog post, the company stated:

“The US launch makes sense now that the Trump administration has shifted the approach and mentality of many agencies regarding emerging technologies, including cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and artificial intelligence (AI). ”

Worldcoin’s Legal Woes

World is still trying to shake off the weight of its original branding.

The project has drawn scrutiny since day one partly due to the Orb, which was built by Tools for Humanity and was originally the first token in the Worldcoin ecosystem.

It’s basically a polished sphere embedded with NVIDIA chips that scans your iris, generates an “iris code” unique to your biometric pattern, and links it to a blockchain-based identity. The pitch is that this confirms your humanity in a digital world overrun by bots.

Despite the Orb’s software being open-source, it doesn’t erase the fact that several countries and jurisdictions have already cracked down on it. In Hong Kong, officials have stated Worldcoin violated privacy policies, while Singapore and Vietnam launched an investigation into the project for similar reasons.

Spain and Portugal suspended operations last year. The pushback is more than obvious, as regulators view the Orb not as a technological curiosity but as a potential data-extraction device dressed up as innovation.

Despite the criticism, World claims to have over 26 million users registered, with 12 million of them verified through Orb scans.

But the token isn’t following the same growth curve. WLD peaked at US$11.74 (AU$17.4) in March 2024. It’s now down over 90%, trading near US$1 (AU$1.57), according to data from CoinMarketCap.