Pantera Capital

World raises $52.5M via WLD token sale

World, the online verification startup co-founded by Sam Altman and operated by Tools for Humanity, raised $52.5 million through a 12-month lockup sale of its crypto token WLD to strategic investors. The funds will be allocated to the World Foundation, an exempted limited guarantee foundation in the Cayman Islands established to steward World’s network. The sale’s lead buyer was Pantera Capital, with participation from Eightco Holdings, Bain Capital Crypto, Susquehanna Crypto, Selini Capital and others. World offers biometric-based verification (World ID) using Orb devices that scan users’ irises to generate cryptographic identifiers. The project began as Worldcoin, rebranded to World, has launched a new app and announced partnerships including Tinder and Ticketmaster, and recently conducted layoffs at Tools for Humanity.

Investor Presentation Released: Pantera Capital

AI parsed presentation narrative: The tokenization market is currently in a 'newspaper-on-a-website' phase, where 77.6% of assets are merely digital wrappers around traditional infrastructure. Management's central thesis is that the market must evolve from these 'Wrapper' products to 'Native' on-chain instruments that leverage programmable compliance, autonomous collateral management, and real-time settlement. Strategic pillars: Wrap, Connect, Compose, Originate, On-chain Nativity.

Joey Krug on Prediction Markets and On‑Chain Finance

Joey Krug, partner at Founders Fund and co‑founder of the decentralized prediction market protocol Augur, discusses the mainstreaming of prediction markets and the structural changes enabling them. He explains why platforms like Polymarket—now clearing billions in monthly volume—have achieved scale, the persistent technical and product challenge of unambiguous market resolution, and why timing and infrastructure mattered for earlier projects like Augur. The conversation covers why Founders Fund backed Polymarket, the rise of crypto treasury companies (and where ETFs fit), regulatory episodes such as Operation Choke Point and an FBI raid on Polymarket‑related activity, mimetic investor behavior, and Founders Fund’s bullish stance on Ethereum. Krug also reflects on lessons from building and funding prediction‑market products and how on‑chain markets are reshaping information flows.