✨ World App Fundraising & the New NFT SocialFi Wave
On June 17th, World App surprisingly announced a successful $13.5 million Seed round, co-led by Bain Capital Crypto, Animoca Brands, Placeholder... – a lineup of seasoned funds in the web3 space. Notably, this platform only emerged in late 2023, but has already established a "lore" rivaling veteran stacks: NFT profile, Social Graph, on-chain quest, and a meta of "chatting for money".
Just one week after the announcement, the number of active wallets on World increased 5-fold, NFT profile sets continuously sold out, pushing secondary market volume to >$2 million/day. On Twitter, numerous KOLs continuously shared profits of "5x, 10x" by hunting World ID, raising the question: What is really happening behind this money flow?
📊 Comprehensive Data Analysis: TVL Breakthrough, SocialFi Explosion
- NFT holder count rapidly increasing: 58,000 NFTs issued, 38,000 unique wallets. In June alone, new NFT Mint volume increased by 320%.
- On-chain volume: NFT profile transactions reached $2.09 million/day on marketplaces like Blur, OpenSea. Airdrop user participation exceeded 80,000 (according to Dune Analytics).
- Active Wallet surge: Linked wallet count jumped from 10k in late May to over 52k in the third week of June. This growth rate surpasses most SocialFi projects at the same stage.
Compared to the SocialFi peak in early 2023 (Friend.tech), World is following a growth trajectory... but accelerating in NFT usage as identity, combining the narrative of "proving authenticity while maintaining wallet anonymity".
🚦 New Phenomenon: NFT Profile and Social Farming Incentive
🔑 Social Graph Model – Dual Incentive
World's biggest difference comes from the "profile NFT" mechanism – each user needs to mint a representative NFT (WorldID) to unlock "farming" participation: creating social graph, invites, reward points, tips, and on-chain tasks.
- More successful invites increase NFT level, with higher reward rates (following a dynamic bonding curve).
- "Profits" distributed through airdrop, stake, or reward pool, compelling users to continue "socializing" on the World App.
- Profiles can be traded secondarily – forming a "wave-riding meta" of NFTs sensitive to KOLs and invite systems.
"World is combining Soulbound, NFT profile, and social farming – transforming attention into a directly on-chain processable asset" – a veteran trader commented on Twitter.
On-chain indicators like "daily quest complete" and "referral successful" are growing week-over-week, showing users are actively engaging, not just waiting for airdrops.
💸 Money Flow Shift: Why World Attracts Degens
Old vs New Meta: Traditional SocialFi Fatigue
- Friend.tech "breakdown": Early 2023 SocialFi fever led to fatigue due to decreasing incentives, many dead accounts, and rapidly declining token prices.
- World appears at the right moment: While the community seeks a "new narrative", World creates a twist: Proof-of-Identity on blockchain, while maintaining wallet anonymity, with NFT profiles having speculative value and farming potential.
Moreover, World's user-friendly UX – requiring only EVM or Solana wallet, no KYC, clear airdrop incentives, and an NFT profile marketplace with rapid price fluctuations – increases motivation for degens in a "farm – sell NFT – earn invite" loop.
⚠️ Risks & Counterarguments: Piercing the SocialFi Illusion?
- Traffic/attention quality: Will most users just farm airdrops, flip NFT profiles, and leave, as happened with Friend.tech and Galxe?
- Bot farming volume: The "openness" of invitation/farming easily leads to network and virtual identity farming – potentially causing wash trading.
- Soft Ponzi model? Can incentives from invite fees, reward farming, and NFT sales sustain long-term incentives? If new user sources decrease, might this model become a "musical chairs" effect?
Looking back at history, all SocialFi platforms quickly rise through gamification, then downtrend due to fatigue effects, unless attention is transformed into genuine utility.
🌱 Long-term Perspective: Will SocialFi Change Roles?
Unlike previous SocialFi platforms, World is "embedding" identity deeply into NFTs, opening possibilities for integration with other Dapps (DAO, POAP, quests, social badges...). If utilized correctly, this could be a strong bridge for the "Web3 Social Capital" wave – where each profile becomes a decentralized brand.
However, for this model to be sustainable, the greatest challenge is maintaining incentives after the hot wave – when airdrop FOMO decreases, can World retain users through genuine utility?
🎯 Conclusion: Attention is an Asset, but Skill Determines Survival
World's rapid growth process shows that SocialFi money flow is not dead – it merely temporarily retreated waiting for a new "meta". World's combination of NFT – Social graph – incentive farming is creating a new storm, but the future still depends on the quality of actual social connections, not just an invite race.
Attention is an asset – but only a sustainable model, built on genuine identity, can lead the next wave.
