Today ether tumbles below $3,000 for the First time since February a new Stablecoin bill just dropped this Morning antiago sat from World coins Parent company tools for Humanity Explains the identity platform's new L2 Blockchain welcome to cnbc's crypto World I'm McKenzie sigalos major Cryptocurrencies are back in the red This morning by noon Eastern Bitcoin Fell 2 and a half% to just above $60,000 while ether fell 2.1% and Dropped below that $3,000 price Threshold for the first time since February salana on the other hand in the Green Rising about 3/4 of 1% the economy Still Remains a focus for crypto Investors especially after fed share J Powell said yesterday that inflation is Persisting and signaled that the central Bank is not ready to cut interest rates There's also of course the tensions in The Middle East as Israel weighs a Response to Iran attack from over the Weekend okay let's talk about the top Stories pomp Investments founder Anthony Pompano joined CNBC Squawk Box this Morning where he discussed markets and The having which is just days away Talking about Bitcoin is crashing to $64,000 was a dream just a few years ago So we're up significantly since the last Having to today about four years uh We're up 800% so it's been incredible
Performance this year year-to date it's About 40% compare that to Gold Gold's up 7% you know year to date in The Last 5 Years is only up about 11% now the Reason why I bring that up what I think Is really interesting is you actually Have lost purchasing power if you've Held gold Over The Last 5 Years Inflation has outpaced Gold's Performance so the whole Narrative of Gold protects your purchasing power is Now been debunked right for the last 5 Years that's not true Bitcoin has so When we start talking about this price Run up that 40% increase to start the Year all of a sudden why is the price Going up ETFs are a huge piece of it uh Also I think people leading into the Having that's a big piece of it but the Government has decided we are going to Debate the currency right and I think That now the world has understood the United States has a debt problem and We're going to debase the currency so There's some of that going on as well Papano also addressed what he thinks was Behind last weekend's crypto selloff Whenever there's a moment of fear right Everyone panics and what do they do they Still buy dollars and so some people are Selling because of that the second thing Is on the weekend even though the Bitcoin Market is open the bank uh System is not open and so you can't get
Net new dollars into your crypto account To buy Bitcoin so the only thing you Really can do is if you're holding Bitcoin you can sell it but most of the People holding Bitcoin are fully Allocated so they don't have dollars to Go buy more Bitcoin there's a very Interesting Dynamic where even though You want to buy more Bitcoin you're Closed out of the system as well cuz the Banking system won't let you wire in Pomano forecast that Bitcoin could cross $100,000 within the next 12 to 18 months And he said that it could potentially Hit $150,000 like others had predicted but Said that people shouldn't expect the Explosive th% move from here for the Rest of the bull market as for the Downside he doesn't think the Cryptocurrency will drop below $50,000 last up two senators just Dropped a new stable coin bill this Morning Senators Kristen Gill brand a Democrat from New York and synthony Lumus a republican from Wyoming said That the bill aims to create a Regulatory framework for stable coins Including mandating a onetoone reserve Banning algorithmic stable coins and Complying with us anti-money laundering And sanctions rules Senator Jill said in The announcement that the bill would Protect customers while promoting US
Dollar dominance while preserving the Dual banking system both Senators joined CNBC this morning and expressed their Optimism in progressing the bill and how The bill would tackle the use of stable Coins in illicit transactions addressing Uh illicit Finance um this stable coin Legislation uh creates a framework where It rests on top of the Dual banking System um it uses the protections of Know your customer um and anti-money Laundering Protections in the banking System yeah the worst thing we could do If stable coins are being misused around The world is to step away and not Regulate them the whole purpose of this Bill is to protect Consumers uh while we acknowledge the Existence and use of stable coins now This isn't the first crypto bill that The Senators have drafted together back In 20202 they introduced the responsible Financial Innovation act to bring Comprehensive crypto regulation that Bill was reintroduced in 2023 all right for our main story today Worldcoin that project that was Co-created by open AI Sam Alman revealed Its new layer 2 blockchain ahead of Today's announcement crypto world's Talia Kaplan spoke with Thiago Sada he's The head of product engineering and Design at tools for Humanity which is The main developer of worldcoin about
The new L2 he also addressed recent Privacy concerns tied to World coin's Key feature its Iris scanning Technology tools for Humanity which is World coins parent company is announcing A new L2 blockchain called World chain And while the announcement is happening Now the blockchain is expected to launch This summer it's permissionless open- Source and intended to be ultimately Owned and governed by the community I Understand that this is part of world Coin's effort to address issues related To bots which can cause congestion on Chain can you elaborate on the goal of This new blockchain and take us through What prompted this all to come About yeah definitely so first of all We're very excited we've been working uh The entire Community for a long time uh On this so happy to finally share it um Generally in the first place the reason We started thinking about uh worldcoin Having own blockchain was because we Just don't fit uh in the existing Network where we're in we are currently More than 40% of all of the capacity uh In the network and and it just became Clear that worldcoin needed to have its Own home uh now like you said something Really interesting about world chain is That it's designed for humans what that Means is that transactions that are Submitted by humans get prioritized
Block space and also verify humans get Uh a free gas allowance and so that's Important not just because it has a Better user experience but it just makes It a lot easier for people to get Started using all of these type of Applications and protocols uh in a way That just hopefully leads them to higher Adoption so how will you be able to Prioritize humans over Bots how will This new blockchain work Exactly exactly so first it's important To say that on a foundation level this Is just like a normal evm compatible Chain uh the base token is either uh It's permissionless anyone regardless Whether it's a b a verified human an Unverified human can submit transactions Now on top of that there will be an Additional layer that um if you're a Verified human with a verified World ID That is you verified it on your phone or You verified it by visiting an orb then You get access to like an express lane Where your transactions are prioritized So that we make sure that hey all the Transactions for real heus can make it And then all of the additional block Bace then that can be for BS and for Whatever else people want but we want to Make sure that humans can get their Transactions in now turning to privacy There have been concerns tied to World Coins orbs which collect data by
Scanning eyeballs in fact last month Spain's privacy Watchdog ordered Worldcoin to temporarily stop operating In the country amid concerns about what It was doing with the personal Information of users a few weeks later Worldcoin was hit with another ban in Europe when Portugal's data regulator Ordered it to stop collecting biometric Data for 90 days since worldcoin Launched last year criticism related to Privacy surrounding its key feature led To Regulators including those in the UK To look into the project what's your Reaction to all these privacy concerns Especially the recent bands from Spain And Portugal so generally it's it's one of The most counter intuitiv about the Project is not just that the orb is Private and the world ID is private but It is perhaps one of the most private Systems we've ever used online period um There's a lot of resources online for That and the the orb firm itself has Actually even been recently open sourced And so people can go and take a look at That uh directly uh specifically when it Comes to governments look I think it's Very natural that when projects uh of Any type start getting to the scale uh That world coin is reaching uh Governments should look into to make Sure that the statements that are being
Made are in fact accurate and so uh Generally speaking any country where you See orbs we're probably engaging with uh With the governments in some capacity Whether is um to make sure that they Understand what is happening most of the Times they can do those checks while Operations are still going every once in A while they will ask us like hey can You please PA for a couple of weeks or a Couple of months well we can review that And of course what we would prefer for That to not be the case uh is completely Normal this is a long-term project they Will take years and decades to build it And so if someone needs a couple of Weeks to uh to fully understand it we Think that's totally fine so you're Confident that Spain and Portugal will Allow worldcoin to start operating in Their regions once Again I'm confident that uh that Worldcoin is not only compliant with all Of the re regulations but that it is one Of the most private systems that have Ever existed much more than something as Basic as social media that we us say Today now I want to focus on something You just mentioned about three weeks ago Worldcoin announced in a blog post that The core components of the orb software Are now open sourced and completed a Privacy audit what was revealed in that Audit and what other steps are being
Taken to protect personal Information of course yeah so it's um These were very important steps um for a Couple of years now we've been gradually Open sourcing different parts of the Stack uh there's something called the World co tech Tre on the internet where People can see every single part uh what Is the what is the status and we took a Really big step earlier this year by Open sourcing the orb firmare that means That now the orb Hardware the orb Firmware the orb AI models and the Identity protocol all of those are Completely open source in addition to That we migrated to A system that we Announced in December I think you Actually talked with Alex about world ID 2.0 where now the the data that the orb Uh verifies users will actually hold That self- custodial on their personal Devices just ases the private keys for Their uh for their wallets uh leave on Their devices so ultimately this is all About giving people more control over How they want to use or delete their Data so that they can do it Directly now were these steps taken in Direct response to all the privacy Concerns and temporary bands and regions Around the world are you noticing a Shift now that worldcoin has taken steps To protect personal information are you Noticing people are more comfortable
With the iris scanning technology Now so all of these changes have Honestly been under the works for a long Time many of them are even mentioned on The white paper um for example this Personal custody was announced in December now we're obviously always in Conversation not just with Regulators With experts and with the community and There are many changes uh things that The community has just come up with Different ideas or or Regulators have Suggested in going about things in Different ways uh this is a community Project and I expect that over the Coming months and years that will Continue to be the case um to your Question about how do people feel about This definitely the response is people Are excited right before the systems Were open source you sort of had to Trust uh either the teams building it or Some of the Auditors uh even if they had Really good reputation now you don't Even have to trust those Auditors right Now you can just go on GitHub and look At the code yourself and you know Exactly what is happening now as you Noted we spoke with with your CEO back In December when he introduced World Coins world ID 2.0 a protocol update Meant to help distinguish between Bots And verified humans online while Preserving privacy at the time he
Acknowledged that world coins backlash Is not surprising do you agree and is it Something the product and engineering Team took into consideration when Building the Orbs yes so I mean with any type of Technology like you have the early Adopters than the rest of the population And then some late adopters I remember When I first got my my first phone my Dad was saying I will never have one of Those things and now you cannot get him Away from his phone I think that's Totally natural to be honest right now In this phase of the project we're just Fully focused on serving all of those Early adopters that are really excited To join all over the world we can't make Orbs fast enough we can't put them out Into the OR World fast enough um a Really big reason for why World chain uh Was built in the first way I was saying Is which is running out of capacity Right we uh there's no more room to Process all of the transactions and to Welcome all of the users that want to Join so we're right now focused on that And what we've seen is uh as people Start signing up uh people in their Communities their friends their family Start hearing about the project they Understand that it's actually incredibly Private and then they eventually uh go And
Verify okay that's all for crypto world Today but we'll be back again tomorrow And we'll see you then
