The Circulating Supply of Worldcoin (WLD): An Explainer

Worldcoin’s tokenomics is unique in that the majority of Worldcoin (WLD) tokens will be made available to individuals over time – simply for being a verified unique human. Thus, the circulating supply of WLD primarily grows with network size and usage.

World is building the real human network so every human can benefit in the age of AI. Already more than 26M people have joined World Network by creating an account in World App, and more than 12M people have an Orb-verified World ID. More than 1500 Orbs are currently live to verify unique humanness across 23 countries.

On July 24, 2023, the Worldcoin (WLD) token was launched with a total supply of 10B WLD. This blog post addresses frequently asked questions regarding Worldcoin’s unique tokenomics design.

Before launch, 75% of all WLD were allocated to the World Community, while 25% were allocated to early investors in Tools for Humanity (“TFH”), the development team, and a small reserve held by TFH (see the whitepaper for details). The community allocation (with more than 60% going to users, see below) is one of the largest among major crypto projects.

Until the protocol is self-sufficient, the World Foundation acts as the steward of the World Community tokens. As part of its role, the Foundation has allocated those tokens towards three purposes: (1) user tokens, (2) network operations, and (3) an ecosystem fund. Importantly, at launch, the Foundation has formulated the aspirational goal of giving at least 60% of all WLD tokens to users (see the following figure).

Worldcoin’s tokenomics is unique in that the majority of WLD tokens will be freely available to claim by individuals over time – simply for engaging in World Network and verifying their human uniqueness. 

Using this growth mechanism, World Network has grown to more than 12M verified humans to date. WLD is already more distributed than major stablecoins today based on some metrics: there are more World App users holding $5 worth of WLD on World Chain than the total number of wallets holding $5 worth of USDC on any EVM chain. World Foundation expects that, in the long-run, its unique growth mechanism, with its focus on broad access and participation in World Network, will result in widespread user adoption. This, in turn, may result in WLD becoming the most widely distributed digital currency.

Individuals can claim WLD tokens in two ways (see the whitepaper for more details):

1. Verifying unique humanness via the Orb: Individuals who have verified their World ID at an Orb can claim a free allocation of WLD tokens (currently about 40 WLD), distributed monthly over one year.
2. Adding a passport credential: Individuals who have added a World ID Passport Credential can claim an additional free allocation of WLD tokens (currently about 20 WLD), also distributed monthly. These can be claimed even if a person has not yet had the opportunity to verify their World ID at an Orb. This helps grow the network in regions where Orbs aren’t available yet.

In more detail, the first WLD amount an individual can claim (currently 16 WLD) constitutes about ⅓ of the total amount, while the remaining amount is claimable over the next 11 months (currently about 3 WLD the first month after verification, 2.8 WLD the month after that, etc.). Importantly, all user token amounts decrease over time. This gives individuals an additional incentive to join the network early and to regularly engage with the protocol, thereby helping to bootstrap World Network.

To understand how user token emissions affect the circulating supply of WLD, consider a scenario where, in a single month, 1 million individuals verify their uniqueness with an Orb and each claim their first token amount of 16 WLD. Assume further that 6 million existing Orb-verified individuals claim the monthly token amount (i.e., 3 WLD). Then 1M x 16 WLD + 6M x 3 WLD = 34M WLD will enter circulating supply within the next month due to the user token emission. In turn, the network of verified humans will have grown by 1M.

Given that the majority of WLD tokens are allocated to users, the circulating supply of WLD primarily grows with network size and usage.

At launch, there were about 2M verified humans on World Network. Consequently, WLD started out with a relatively low circulating supply just above 100M WLD (or 1% of total supply).

Since launch, WLD’s circulating supply has increased slowly over time and, as of April 28, 2025, stands at about 1.3B WLD, or 13% of the total supply (see the figure below).

About 20% of the tokens held by the TFH team and investors unlock over 3 years, while 80% unlock over 5 years. Thus, unlocking for nearly all of these tokens concludes by the end of July 2028—five years after protocol launch. The World Foundation previously shared information about these unlocks (see here), as this very gradual unlock schedule is longer than that of many projects and aligns with the long-term nature of World’s mission. One year after launch, on July 24, 2024, the first of these tokens began to unlock (and thus enter circulating supply) daily in a linear fashion (see the whitepaper for details on unlocking and this Dune chart for live numbers).

The current circulating supply of WLD originated from several different sources. About 525M WLD have been claimed by individuals from the pool of user tokens. About 305M of the investor tokens and about 215M of the team tokens are unlocked and thus part of the circulating supply. About 33M WLD have been paid to Orb Operators. Trading firms currently hold loans worth 13M WLD. The remaining ~210M WLD have been spent on network operations (e.g., market operations, Orb manufacturing, sequencer fees) and ecosystem building (e.g., protocol R&D, World community grants, and other operational costs). For more details, see this Dune dashboard.