Maelstrom, the investment firm of Arthur Hayes, set a $5 target price for Worldcoin token WLD. With expectations rising for IPOs by major artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, it assessed WLD as a leading crypto proxy asset for investing in AI industry growth.

On June 4, blockchain outlet Cointelegraph reported that Lucas Ruppert, a researcher at Maelstrom, said in a recent report, "While IPOs of big AI companies are approaching, the market is overlooking one of the clearest AI proxy assets," pointing to upside potential for WLD.

A key factor cited by Maelstrom is a series of listing moves by U.S. AI companies. OpenAI confidentially submitted preliminary listing documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in May and is said to be seeking fundraising of up to $60 billion and a valuation of up to $1 trillion, targeting a September 2026 listing. Rival Anthropic also recently confidentially submitted a draft for listing, and its valuation was estimated at about $965 billion after raising new investment last month.

Strength in AI-related stocks was also cited as a positive factor. In the U.S. stock market recently, companies tied to AI infrastructure and memory semiconductors led gains, and the S&P 500 index set a record high. Maelstrom judged that such AI investment enthusiasm has not been sufficiently reflected in the WLD price.

WLD is the native token of Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI. Worldcoin aims to build a global digital identity and financial network that can distinguish AI bots from real humans.

WLD has shown weak performance so far this year. Selling pressure increased after Worldcoin raised $65 million in March by selling tokens via over-the-counter deals. While part of the allocated amount was subject to a six-month lock-up, investors built short positions in the perpetual futures market to hedge against downside risk, creating selling overhang, the analysis said.

Ruppert described this as a "typical short overhang" and focused on the possibility of it being cleared. Maelstrom said two variables in particular could lead to improved supply and demand.

The first is additional buying demand. Listed firm Aitco already holds 283 million WLD and is said to be able to deploy about $144 million in cash for additional purchases. Maelstrom forecast that if Aitco continues buying tokens with high short interest, a kind of "short squeeze" effect could occur and spur prices higher.

The second is a decline in supply. Worldcoin's daily token circulation volume is set to shrink by about 43% from July 24. Maelstrom said the measure could help ease key selling pressure in the market.

Market reaction is also emerging. WLD has risen about 60% over the past week, posting the highest return among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. Ruppert said, "The market is actively looking for exposure related to OpenAI and Anthropic," and added, "Compared with AI company valuations of hundreds of billions of dollars up to $1 trillion, WLD's fully diluted market capitalisation is still at small-cap levels."

He went on to describe WLD as an "asymmetric investment opportunity with limited downside risk relative to upside potential." He added, however, that the outlook is valid only if expectations for AI company listings persist, short-selling overhang eases, and reduced token supply and additional buying demand lead to an actual improvement in supply and demand.