World, the online verification startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, has raised $52.5 million through a crypto token sale to strategic investors.

Participating investors joined a 12-month locked sale of the global token, WLD. Lock-up periods prevent asset buyers from selling or trading their tokens for a set period of time. The one-year lockup demonstrates investors’ “long-term commitment to the world’s continued growth and profit,” the company said Friday in a news release.

The money will go to the World Foundation, an exempt limited guarantee foundation based in the Cayman Islands, created to manage the expansion of World’s network.

The lead buyer of the sale is Pantera Capital, a venture capital firm focused on digital assets. Other companies involved in the sale included Eightco Holdings, Bain Capital Crypto, Susquehanna Crypto and Selini Capital, among others.

The World project is operated by Tools for Humanity, a startup based in San Francisco and led by CEO and co-founder Alex Blania. Altman is the company’s other co-founder.

World is an unusual business that revolves around online verification and sells access to what it calls “human testing” tools. The idea is that as bots and AI generate much of the content online, it will become increasingly important to know who is truly human and who is not. World’s mission is to popularize its World ID, an anonymous digital marker that verifies whether a human being (not a robot or AI agent) is behind a particular account.

To obtain a verified World ID (the highest level of verification within the World system), users must scan their eyes with an Orb, a metal ball that converts a user’s iris into a distinctive cryptographic identifier. World’s Orbs are located in their offices and have also been rolled out to partner stores around the world.

The project began as a more overtly cryptocurrency-based experiment under the name “Worldcoin,” the same name of the cryptoasset involved in the recent sale. Users can exchange or hold the token through the World app, which also serves as a custodial wallet. The company later changed its name to World amid a broader backlash against the crypto industry.

In April, the project launched a new version of its app and announced partnerships with companies including Tinder and Ticketmaster. Yet despite its global ambitions, World has struggled to scale its business or convince consumers to care deeply about its mission. In June, TFH carried out a round of layoffs.