Worldcoin’s (WLD) token experienced a sharp decline in European morning hours on Friday following reports of a lawsuit against related company OpenAI. The token dropped 2.2% in just one hour after news broke that technology investor Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), had filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman for breach of contract.
According to a report by Reuters, Musk accused OpenAI and Altman of breaching contractual agreements that were made when he helped found the company back in 2015. At that time, Altman and Musk served as co-chairs of the company. Altman is also a board member and co-creator of Worldcoin, a controversial project that aims to scan everyone’s eyes in exchange for a digital ID and tokens.
Following the news of the lawsuit, WLD was down 1.76% over a 24-hour period, while the CD20, a gauge of the wider crypto market, had lost 0.57%. In January 2023, Microsoft announced a “multiyear, multibillion dollar investment” into OpenAI to accelerate AI breakthroughs and ensure the benefits are shared with the world. However, Reuters reported in December that Microsoft does not own a stake in OpenAI.
The lawsuit filed by Musk aims to ensure that OpenAI does not develop technology that benefits specific individuals or companies, but rather sticks to its founding vision of benefiting all of humanity, as reported by the Financial Times. In the past year, AI tokens have often reacted to developments in the broader artificial intelligence industry. For example, in February, several AI tokens rallied after chipmaker Nvidia beat fourth-quarter earnings estimates and OpenAI released a new text-to-video product.
The relationship with Microsoft was added in the fourth paragraph of the article, along with the token’s 24-hour performance in the third paragraph. The situation between Musk, OpenAI, and Altman continues to unfold, with potential implications for the broader crypto and AI industries.