Grayscale filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday for a Worldcoin exchange-traded fund, proposing to list the product on the Nasdaq under the ticker GWLD. The fund would hold WLD directly, giving investors exposure to the native token of World Network through a traditional brokerage account without requiring direct token ownership or custody.
The proposed trust is a Delaware statutory trust established July 10. It would passively track the CoinDesk Worldcoin Benchmark Rate and carry no leverage or derivatives. Shares would be created and redeemed in baskets of 10,000 by authorized participants through in-kind or cash transactions. BitGo Bank & Trust is named as custodian. BNY Mellon would serve as administrator and transfer agent. CSC Delaware Trust Company is listed as trustee, and Grayscale Investments Sponsors LLC, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, would sponsor the fund. The filing does not yet disclose management fees, seed investment terms, authorized participants, or liquidity providers.
The WLD holdings inside the trust would remain fully segregated and cannot be lent, pledged, or used as collateral under the proposed structure.
WLD's token profile and what the filing disclosed about risk
WLD is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain and bridged to World Chain, an Ethereum Layer-2 network that forms part of the World Network ecosystem. The project was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman through Tools for Humanity, and uses spherical iris-scanning devices called Orbs to issue World IDs and distribute WLD tokens as a proof-of-personhood system.
As of June 30, approximately 3.5 billion WLD tokens were in circulation with a market capitalization of roughly $1.4 billion and daily trading volume of $135.1 million, ranking it 41st among crypto assets at the time of filing. The token trades near $0.3833, approximately 97% below its March 2024 peak of $11.80. WLD rose about 7% on news of the filing, according to CoinMarketCap data.
The preliminary prospectus names several material risks. The 100 largest WLD wallets hold approximately 90% of all circulating supply, and team and investor token unlocks continue until around July 2028. The filing also flags World Chain's centralized sequencer, the possibility that regulators could classify WLD as a security, and extreme price volatility. The filing notes that the fund "would not actively trade WLD, make discretionary portfolio decisions, or attempt to outperform the token. Its role would be to provide regulated market exposure to WLD through traditional brokerage accounts."
Regulatory history that follows Worldcoin into the ETF application
The project has drawn enforcement actions and regulatory scrutiny across multiple jurisdictions. Spain, Portugal, Germany, Hong Kong, Brazil, Kenya, and Indonesia all took legal or enforcement actions against Worldcoin's Orb between 2024 and 2025, primarily over concerns about how the company collects and handles biometric data. Those actions form part of the risk factor section of the prospectus and represent a dimension of this filing that has no direct parallel in earlier Grayscale spot ETF applications for Bitcoin, Ether, or Solana.
Trading can only commence after both the SEC approves the registration and Nasdaq confirms the shares meet all applicable listing requirements under Nasdaq Rule 5711(d), which governs commodity-based trust shares. The filing notes that WLD must first satisfy eligibility requirements under Nasdaq Rule 5711(d)(iv) before listing can proceed.
Grayscale separately updated staking reward plans for Ethereum and Solana ETFs
In a related regulatory filing, Grayscale disclosed on July 17 through an 8-K that it plans to amend trust agreements for its Ethereum Staking ETF and Solana Staking ETF to distribute staking rewards to investors in cash at least quarterly, after deducting fees and expenses. The Ethereum Staking ETF held net assets of $1.22 billion as of July 17 with a staking reward rate of 2.67%. The Solana Staking ETF held $101.13 million with a reward rate of 6.10%.
The Worldcoin filing extends Grayscale's single-asset crypto ETF lineup, which now covers Bitcoin, XRP, Solana, Ether, Dogecoin, Chainlink, and Avalanche among others. If approved, the GWLD fund would become the 18th crypto-related exchange-traded product in the firm's range and the first ETF tied to a biometric-identity token in the US market.
Matvii Diadkov
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