FTX estate prepares to sell $38 million of locked Worldcoin tokens at a discount

Quick Take

  • The FTX estate is auctioning 22.3 million locked Worldcoin tokens, three sources told The Block.
  • Bids for the WLD token sale must be submitted by 8 PM ET Wednesday, two of the sources added.

The FTX estate is set to auction 22.3 million locked Worldcoin (WLD) tokens, currently valued at around $37.7 million, at a significant discount, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told The Block. The sale is part of the estate's ongoing effort to recover funds for creditors.

Interested buyers must submit their bids for the WLD token sale by 8 PM ET Wednesday, two of the sources said, adding that those parties will be notified by Thursday if their bids are accepted. The discount on the WLD tokens could range from 40% to 75% off the current spot market price of WLD, which is trading at around $1.69, the two sources said.

The FTX estate holds a total of 22.3 million WLD tokens, indicating that there will be no further auctions for these tokens, according to the two sources.

The WLD tokens will unlock daily through 2028. Specifically, 20,539 WLD tokens will unlock daily from Dec. 1, 2024, to July 24, 2026, and 13,689 WLD tokens will unlock daily from July 25, 2026, to July 24, 2028, the two sources added.

One of the three sources, along with a separate fourth source, expressed concerns about the length of the lockup periods for the WLD tokens.

Earlier this week, Figure Markets co-founder and CEO Mike Cagney posted on X that the FTX estate is auctioning its WLD token position, mentioning it could be at a discount of around 75%. He noted that the WLD tokens will unlock daily through 2028. Cagney also said that Figure Markets might establish a fund to participate in the WLD token auction, similar to what the firm did for the FTX estate’s Solana (SOL) auction earlier this year.

However, according to a source familiar with the matter, Figure Markets chose not to bid on WLD tokens due to concerns about the token's limited float and the perceived expectations from the estate.

The FTX estate previously sold SOL and Metaplex (MPLX) tokens before moving on to WLD. In May, the FTX estate wrapped up the sale of its $7.5 billion stash of discounted Solana tokens, which attracted interest from high-profile investors, including Pantera Capital. Last month, as The Block reported, several crypto funds, including Pantera Capital and ParaFi Capital, bought 62.6 million MPLX tokens from Wave Digital Assets, which were originally held by the FTX estate.

The FTX estate appears to have sold most of its tokens and now holds approximately $594 million in remaining assets, according to Arkham data. However, a significant portion of these assets, some $541 million, is in the form of FTX's FTT token, which is highly illiquid and may not get sold as the estate marked it to zero.

(with contribution from Tim Copeland)

Updated: Oct. 2, 19:10 UTC: Added information from source. 


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About Author

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block and the author of The Funding newsletter. As our longest-serving editorial member, Yogita has been instrumental in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With over 3,000 articles to her name, Yogita is The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Before joining The Block, Yogita wrote for CoinDesk and The Economic Times. You can reach her at [email protected] or follow her latest updates on X at @Yogita_Khatri5.

Editor

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