WLD Crashes to All-Time Low After World Foundation's $65M OTC Token Sale, Lido DAO Proposes $20M LDO Buyback

World Foundation Dumps $65M Worth of WLD — Token Plunges to Record Low

World Assets, Ltd. completed a series of over-the-counter sales totaling $65 million, offloading 239 million WLD tokens at an average price of $0.27 per token. The transactions involved four counterparties, with the first tranche settling on March 20, 2026 — though the news was only disclosed a week later.

"1/ World Assets, Ltd. has now closed a series of OTC sales for a total of $65,000,000 with four counterparties over the past week, the first of which settled on March 20, 2026." — World Foundation (@worldcoinfnd), original post

According to the project's representatives, the proceeds will fund core operations including research and development, orb manufacturing, ecosystem growth, and other activities.

Of the $65 million total, $25 million worth of tokens are subject to a six-month lock-up period, while the remaining tokens were immediately available to buyers.

WLD/USDT hourly chart on Binance. Source: TradingView

The market reaction was sharply negative. Following the announcement, WLD dropped to $0.24 — its absolute all-time low. At the time of writing, the price had partially recovered to $0.28, but this remains 97% below the all-time high of $11.82 reached in March 2024. Worldcoin's market capitalization stands at $879 million, down from a peak of $3.9 billion in September 2025.

Why This Matters

A large-scale OTC sale by a project's founding entity is a significant warning sign for token holders. Disposing of 239 million WLD well below historical highs intensifies sell-side pressure and raises questions about World Foundation's long-term monetization strategy. The 97% decline from peak values illustrates the depth of value destruction even high-profile crypto projects can experience.

Meanwhile, Lido's situation highlights a broader trend where DeFi governance tokens have severely underperformed relative to the protocols' fundamentals, prompting DAOs to explore treasury-funded interventions.

Lido DAO Considers $20M Buyback to Prop Up LDO Price

The native token of liquid staking platform Lido Finance is facing similar headwinds. LDO is trading at roughly $0.3 — approximately 96% below its all-time high of $7.3 set in 2021.

LDO/USDT hourly chart on Binance. Source: TradingView

To address the collapse, Lido DAO has put forward a proposal for a one-time buyback of LDO tokens worth $20 million. The plan involves swapping 10,000 stETH from the organization's treasury for LDO. To minimize market impact, the buyback would employ limit orders or a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) strategy. Each buyback batch requires approval from token holders, and a results report must be published upon completion.

The proposal's authors noted that the current divergence between LDO's market price and the protocol's fundamentals is among the most extreme in the token's history. LDO is trading at a discount to Ethereum of 0.00016 — roughly 63% below its two-year median. The market cap has plummeted to $275 million from over $3.2 billion in 2024.

Lido's Fundamentals Remain Intact Despite Revenue Drop

The buyback proposal emerged against the backdrop of Lido's revenue declining 23% to 40.5 million in 2025, primarily driven by a 23% drop in staking fees to $37.4 million. Despite this, Lido maintains its dominant position in liquid staking with a 23.2% share of all staked ETH.

Lido's share of liquid ETH staking. Source: Dune

Lido DAO emphasized that the protocol's fundamentals remain strong: rewards decreased by 20% amid the broader market downturn, while costs fell 13% in 2025 compared to 2024. The commission rate increased from 5% to over 6.1%, boosting fee revenue. Earlier in 2026, the Lido team launched stVaults — a modular infrastructure for staking.