Bored Ape Yacht Club secures additional funding, reaching a valuation of $4 billion; Controversial project involving iris scanning seeks $100 million token financing.

The well-known venture capital firm a16z conducted two major financings on 3/22, leading a $450 million funding round for the developer Yuga Labs of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and reportedly completed a $100 million financing for the controversial iris scanning token project Worldcoin, according to anonymous sources.

Bored Ape Yacht Club Valued at $4 Billion

The news was first reported by The Verge, stating that the $450 million funding round was led by investors including Animoca Brands, Coinbase, and MoonPay.

Chris Lyons, a general partner at a16z, will join the board of Yuga Labs. Chris Dixon, a partner at a16z, commented on the funding round:

To me, Yuga Labs' integration with other emerging Web3 companies balances out the dominance of a powerful competitor like Meta, which is a leading digital experience provider where all the money and control is owned by Meta, creating a dystopian future.

Worldcoin

On March 22, The Information reported, citing anonymous sources, that Worldcoin is selling its tokens to raise $100 million in funding, with major participants including a16z and Khosla Ventures, valuing the company at $3 billion.

Previous reports stated that for the promotion and adoption of cryptocurrency, as well as for purposes like Universal Basic Income (UBI), Worldcoin scans people's irises using biometric technology, converting the iris images into hash values and storing them in a database.

Each person's iris cannot generate a second hash value, thus preventing issues of duplicate registration and identity theft. Everyone who undergoes iris scanning will receive a free allocation of Worldcoin. Additionally, the company stated that it will delete individual iris data, with only the hash values being retained.

Worldcoin was launched by Sam Altman, co-founder of the prominent U.S. seed-stage incubator Y Combinator. However, the project has faced community resistance due to concerns over data privacy, fund allocation, token distribution, and unclear roadmap.