{"id":89419,"date":"2025-09-30T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=89419"},"modified":"2025-12-04T07:06:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T04:06:50","slug":"altmans-world-in-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/altmans-world-in-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Altman’s Dual Bet on Identity and AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crypto-treasury trend has just notched its first addition of Worldcoin<\/a> (WLD) to a corporate balance sheet. Eightco, a publicly listed logistics company, has set itself the goal of digitising every person\u2019s identity and has brought in Wall Street veteran Dan Ives to help.<\/p>\n

ForkLog looks at how Sam Altman\u2019s two creations\u2014World and ChatGPT\u2014may be knitted together.<\/p>\n

From boxes to cryptocurrencies<\/h2>\n

On 8 September 2025 the Eightco holding company announced<\/a> a \u201cfirst of its kind\u201d strategy to acquire Worldcoin tokens. These are used to provide rewards in exchange for digital identity verification in World, a project by Alex Blania and the creator of ChatGPT, Sam Altman.<\/p>\n

Eightco was founded in September 2021 in Nevada under the name Cryptyde.
On 9 March 2022 it was converted into a corporation under Delaware law, and in October it acquired Forever 8 Fund, a unit that purchases and manages inventory for e-commerce sellers. On 4 April 2023 the firm changed its name to Eightco Holdings.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s portfolio included Ferguson Containers, a corrugated packaging manufacturing and logistics firm. In April 2025 the company sold most of those assets to focus on fintech.<\/p>\n

\"image\"
How Forever 8 works. Source: Eightco<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The core Forever 8 unit buys certain goods from a seller\u2019s inventory, then replenishes future orders using a proprietary end-to-end verification tool. Merchant clients thus unlock cash flow and can focus on growing the business.<\/p>\n

Throughout 2024 the company improved<\/a> its balance sheet: it cut expenses, shed some debt and strengthened shareholders\u2019 equity metrics.<\/p>\n

By joining the digital-treasury trend, Eightco Holdings\u2019 shares surged 5,632% on the first day of trading, peaking around $83. On 11 September, by board decision, the Nasdaq ticker was changed from OCTO to ORBS. The name refers to the iris-scanning devices\u2014Orbs. The gesture appears to signal its long-term intent.<\/p>\n

According to Bloomberg<\/a>, on the day the new strategy was announced Eightco\u2019s market capitalisation topped $190m. Previously it had been only about $4.4m.<\/p>\n

\"image\"
Hourly chart of ORBS shares on Nasdaq. Source: TradingView<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before the opening bell, Eightco\u2019s management said it had sold about 171.2m shares at $1.46 apiece to finance WLD purchases. The company also noted it could add Ethereum (ETH) as a second reserve currency in future.<\/p>\n

Eightco raised $250m via a private placement among crypto-oriented investors. It was led by MOZAYYX with participation from World Foundation, as well as Discovery Capital Management and Kraken.<\/p>\n

Cantor Fitzgerald\u2014the brokerage controlled by the family of US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick\u2014served as financial adviser to MOZAYYX.<\/p>\n

Eightco raised an additional $20m via a deal with bitcoin miner Bitmine Immersion Technologies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"
Four-hour chart of the WLD\/USDT pair on Binance. Source: TradingView<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On 8 September, according to TradingView, WLD jumped by roughly 120% in 24 hours to $2.2. The token\u2019s market capitalisation reached<\/a> $4bn.<\/p>\n

A Wall Street standard-bearer<\/h2>\n

To develop its crypto-treasury strategy, Eightco appointed Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives. The Wall Street analyst has chosen electric vehicles and frontier technologies like World as his main research focus for the next decade.<\/p>\n

On 23 September, in an interview with stock-market commentator Amit Kukreja, Ives characterised Sam Altman\u2019s initiative as a technological infrastructure play, predicting that in future it will become \u201cthe single sign-on for AI\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Always awesome to have a deep dive on tech stocks, AI Revolution, and ORBS @Iamhuman_ORBS<\/a> with my good friend @amitisinvesting<\/a> \ud83d\udd25\ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udf7f\ud83d\udc02\ud83d\udc47 https:\/\/t.co\/pEzqohq4Si<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dan Ives (@DivesTech) September 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n