Eightco’s $270 Million Worldcoin Purchase Sparks Stock Surge and Lifts Worldcoin Price
Company to rename itself Orbs as it adopts an identification-focused crypto treasury; regulators have raised privacy concerns over iris-scanning identity verification
Shares of Eightco rocketed after the company announced a $270 million purchase of Worldcoin, the biometric digital-identity cryptocurrency co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The announcement pushed Eightco shares sharply higher and sent Worldcoin’s token up nearly 50%, from about $1.03 to $1.53. Eightco said it will change its name to Orbs when the deal closes later this week, pending Nasdaq approval, and the company positioned the purchase as more than a conventional digital-asset treasury move.
Dan Ives, who will become chairman of the renamed company, described the transaction as “tech infrastructure” for the future of artificial intelligence, telling reporters that verifying “humanness” will be critical as AI agents proliferate online. Investor Tom Lee, another backer of the deal, said Worldcoin’s identity verification could become valuable across applications such as online advertising, exams, document signing and dating platforms, where proving a user is a human rather than a bot could command a premium.
Worldcoin was co-founded in 2019 by Sam Altman and Alex Blania and uses an iris-scanning device to generate a unique cryptographic identity called an "IrisCode." The project says it does not store raw biometric images and that the IrisCode functions as a zero-knowledge proof of personhood. The World App records the IrisCode on the Worldcoin blockchain, and the network has said it has scanned about 16 million people and aims to reach 100 million users this year. Users who complete verification receive tokens as an incentive for participation.
Analysts and investors framed Eightco’s purchase within a broader corporate trend of using spare cash to buy digital assets — sometimes called digital asset treasuries — but noted the Worldcoin move differs from recent corporate allocations to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Worldcoin’s token also acts as a governance asset, giving holders influence over the World Network’s development and policy decisions, an attribute that investors said could create strategic value beyond simple price appreciation.
“AI and Wall Street are moving to the blockchain,” Ives said, arguing that a reliable human-authentication layer could be important to the development of AI systems and the ways companies monetize digital audiences.
Critics and regulators have raised privacy and safety concerns about Worldcoin’s iris-scanning approach. Authorities in Portugal have scrutinized the project, and China, Spain and Hong Kong have imposed temporary bans or restrictions over biometric data concerns. Worldcoin has said its design and cryptographic methods protect users’ biometric privacy, but those assertions have not removed government scrutiny in several jurisdictions.
Obtaining Worldcoin differs from buying mainstream cryptocurrencies on retail platforms. In addition to purchasing tokens through another cryptocurrency such as Ethereum, users may be required to verify their identity with an iris scan, a process that has attracted debate over consent, data protection and the potential risks of collecting biometric identifiers at scale.
The transaction also reflects investor interest in linking crypto assets to real-world infrastructure and services. Tom Lee’s BitMine and other investors have backed Eightco’s pivot; BitMine has previously committed $20 million to the company. Ives and Lee said they view Worldcoin as addressing an emerging market need to distinguish humans from automated accounts and agents as AI capabilities expand.
Regulatory responses and public acceptance will shape whether Worldcoin’s approach becomes widely adopted. Companies and platforms that require reliable human verification could face pressure to balance commercial incentives against privacy safeguards and legal compliance in different markets. Eightco’s bet signals investor confidence that an identity-focused token could play a role in AI-era digital markets, but it also places the renamed company at the center of ongoing debates about biometric data, governance tokens and the limits of corporate crypto treasuries.
The deal is expected to close this week if Nasdaq approves the name change. Until then, markets and regulators will continue to scrutinize a high-profile example of how startups and public companies are combining crypto assets, identity technology and AI-related narratives in pursuit of new revenue and infrastructure models.