Is Worldcoin also trading memes? Degens have already surged on Worldchain

Author: Raymond

After Uniswap announced its transformation to Layer 2, Worldcoin officially renamed itself to World (short for World) on October 18 and launched the World Chain mainnet. On the day of the launch, Worldchain became a new land for meme players, with various "cat and dog memes" contract codes quickly spreading throughout the community…

What was updated at the Worldcoin press conference?

At the press conference, the World team introduced a series of new product updates, including the launch of the World Chain mainnet, Orb 2.0 version, World Apps 3.0, and World ID 3.0.

Worldchain

World Chain is a Layer 2 network built on the OP Stack and has received support from projects such as Optimism, Alchemy, Uniswap, Safe, Dune, and Etherscan. Currently, user transactions on World Chain account for about 44% of the OP Mainnet. Relying on World ID, World Chain will prioritize supporting two use cases at the application level: anonymous human verification and financial access.

Unichain focuses on cost, speed, and interoperability, shaping a unique L2 brand from DeFi. The advantage of World Chain lies in its ability to achieve Sybil resistance based on World ID, thus building a Layer 2 that consists only of real human users.

Image source: World official website

Orb 2.0

In addition to the launch of the World Chain mainnet, the World team also announced the new Orb 2.0 plan. Orb 2.0, as a new iris scanning device, adopts open-source code and uses fewer manufacturing parts, with better chip performance and faster operation speed. The World team has opened "advanced verification experience" stores in Buenos Aires and Mexico and plans to deploy them in more everyday venues such as coffee shops.

Image source: Coindesk

World Apps 3.0

The update of World Apps 3.0 is also "lightweight," mainly featuring Mini Apps that allow third-party applications to run directly within the World App and deeply integrate with users' World ID, Wallet, and contacts in an anonymous manner. The usage scenarios are more inclined towards users' daily lives, such as transfers, games, and fee recharges.

Image source: World official website

World ID 3.0

To increase the channels for users to obtain World ID and lower the threshold, World ID 3.0 allows users to obtain World ID by providing identification documents such as ID cards and passports without the need for iris scanning via Orb. Although some have questioned the method of verifying whether someone is a real human by holding official documents, once users have a World ID, the World ID Deep Faces technology will identify whether the user's online interaction objects are subject to deep forgery.

Image source: World official website

Why did WLD fall instead of rise after the launch of World Chain?

As early as April this year, Wordcoin announced the start of World Chain development. The Worldcoin Foundation also positioned the development of World Chain to prioritize improving scalability as a Layer 2 and launched a community funding program for developers in May this year. The funding categories for World Chain focus on supporting improved developer experience and tools, digital identity, ecosystem growth, and governance.

However, after nearly 6 months of development, upon the launch of the World Chain mainnet, its native token WLD did not experience a surge of over 15% in a single day like UNI did when Unichain was launched, and even saw a brief decline after the announcement.

The brief drop in price may be due to institutions taking profits after the positive news was released. According to on-chain analysis from Coinwire, the market maker GSR MARKET deposited and sold $3 million worth of WLD to Binance, causing some selling pressure on WLD. Meanwhile, Alameda Research has also deposited about 1.7 million WLD into Binance over the past 3 months. On the other hand, WLD does not have the expectation of protocol revenue distribution for holders like UNI, and its token is generally viewed as a meme coin founded by Sam Altman in the AI sector. In this upgrade of World Chain, the value capture of WLD remains unclear.

Image source: X

However, from a secondary technical analysis perspective, WLD's relative strength index (RSI) is currently at 56.41, close to the midpoint of the 0-100 range. The short-term price is neutral. In the medium to long term, WLD is in a descending wedge, with potential bullish breakout expectations.

What is the community doing on World Chain?

In terms of the World Chain ecosystem, DYORSwap is currently one of the first DEXs within its ecosystem, while Owlto serves as the main bridging tool. After the mainnet launch, users naturally turned their attention to Worldchain's tokens and meme coins.

ORB

ORB is the first token on World Coin. Currently, the token distribution in the market, whether through pre-mining, pre-sale, or having a large share of private investment, reflects an uneven distribution phenomenon. ORB, carrying the original spirit of egalitarianism, aims to create a token that is equal for everyone. ORB is not yet open for trading, and users can claim 1000 ORB through the World app at any time after verification.

WCat

First cat contract: 0xB1BFa980fFFC15c2c5b9dcCFc214EF1E41B4122c

WCat has a 24-hour drop of 84%, with a market cap of $248,000.

Image source: dexscreener

Sofamon

Founder's rabbit: 0x046d37E233b96555b9aAD4B802b56D30F4C29Edc

Sofamon has a 24-hour increase of 64.73%, with a market cap of $42,000.

Image source: dexscreener

FROGE

Frog meme: 0x37CEF2Ea9dD8B364e8E60405D55887a1d5AE76D4

FROGE has a staggering 24-hour increase of 16,149%, but has gradually declined today, currently with a market cap of $564,000.

Image source: dexscreener

Aside from ORB not being open for trading yet, the on-chain assets of WorldChain, whether WCat, Sofamon, or FROGE, all quickly retracted after peaking on the evening of October 17, with profit-taking continuing to exit, and by October 18, they had nearly returned to zero. In terms of trading volume, World Chain's 24-hour trading volume was $70 million, with the highest trading volume meme coin only reaching $4.9 million.

Image source: dexscreener

For a new chain like World Chain, the funds are more in a wait-and-see attitude, hoping to take advantage of the hype to make a profit. The market for zoo meme coins is not sustainable in the short term. On the road to launching more valuable applications and attracting market funds to settle, the World team still has a long way to go.