World ID Targets Banks Facing $40 Billion AI Fraud

World, the identity project co-founded by Sam Altman, launched World ID for banking and finance, a suite letting institutions confirm a real person stands behind transactions, trades and customer requests. Bain Capital, Pantera Capital, VanEck Funds, OpenExchange and Outtake signed on as initial design partners.

It rests on three cryptographic proofs: Proof of Human from a one-time visit to an iris-scanning Orb, Proof of Presence via a selfie liveness check, and Proof of Attributes revealing only requested details like age. Banks could demand a verified human to approve wires or recover accounts without storing documents.

World cited an Arup employee who wired about $25.6 million in 2024 after a video call where every other participant was a deepfake, and Deloitte's forecast of $40 billion in US AI-enabled fraud losses by 2027. AgentKit, still in beta, lets users delegate proofs to AI agents.

More than 18 million people hold a Proof of Human ID, and the World Foundation raised $52.5 million this year to scale the network. The Worldcoin project's Orbs have drawn regulatory fire, with Spain ordering iris data deleted, Hong Kong halting scans and a Kenyan court ordering biometric deletions.

16 Issuers Including Microsoft Now Object to OKXICE

Microsoft, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs are among seven issuers that newly objected to tokenized trading of their shares on OKXICE, the planned venue from OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange. Qualcomm, Caterpillar, McDonald's and Western Digital also joined, lifting the disclosed tally to 16 from nine a week earlier.

OKXICE's original notice named 62 companies, and 15 of them have now objected, leaving 47 without a disclosed objection. The venue seeks to run under the SEC's five-year Innovation Exemption, which permits tokenized stock trading through automated market makers but lets issuers formally object to listings.

French Parliament Backs 31.4% Tax on Stablecoin Swaps, 38-37

France's National Assembly adopted amendment I-3898 to the 2027 budget by 38 votes to 37, with 25 abstentions, making swaps from crypto into MiCA-regulated stablecoins taxable at the 31.4% flat rate. The change would apply from January 1, 2027, ending a tax deferral current rules allow.

Gains would be measured coin by coin using weighted average purchase prices, replacing France's portfolio-wide calculation. Public Accounts Minister David Amiel opposed the measure, while Chainalysis warned it could push French crypto investors toward DeFi, peer-to-peer deals and offshore exchanges before the budget reaches the Senate.

Mastercard Opens Agent Pay After Six Pilots Including Coinbase

Mastercard opened early access to Agent Pay for Machines to developers after end-to-end pilots with Cloudflare, Ant International, BVNK, AIsa, Base and Coinbase. The APIs support spending controls plus card, bank account and stablecoin payments, though the product remains in pilot and is not yet commercially available.

In a demo, an AI agent for marketing agency Hype made nine payments to AIsa and Cloudflare using the Coinbase-incubated x402 protocol, settling on Base. BVNK served as the agent wallet, running payments through Mastercard's Global Money Platform so sellers receive their preferred currency, token or rail.

Data of the Day

Ethereum staking hit a record 43.8 million ETH, nearly 36% of supply, at the end of September, Bitwise found, yet annualized yields slipped to 2.63% from 2.81% as rewards spread across a larger pool. Net inflows reached just under 2 million ETH, a sixth straight positive quarter.

Newly issued ETH supplied over 96% of Ethereum staking yield as network revenue fell to roughly $40.6 million from $63 million. Solana staking also set a record at 440.5 million SOL, 69% of supply, while transaction fees jumped 49% to $76 million on memecoin trading.

More Breaking News

• OKX launched Shield account protection in the US, covering up to $100,000 for compromised accounts and $500,000 for VIP clients, a month after its European debut.
• Blockchain.com rolled out calls and puts on seven assets including bitcoin, ether and SOL, with expiries up to one week, USDC funding and losses capped at the premium.
• Mt. Gox pushed its repayment deadline to October 31, 2027, a fourth one-year delay, with wallets still holding about 34,388 BTC worth roughly $2.8 billion, per Arkham.
• BlackRock filed its third bitcoin ETF, offering downside protection with capped upside exposure to IBIT, which holds more than $65 billion and leads all spot bitcoin ETFs.
• Strive bought another 4,045 BTC for about $335 million after warrant exercises raised $369.2 million, lifting its bitcoin treasury to 36,818 BTC while shares outstanding rose 13.5%.
• The Drift exploiter sent 25,700 ETH, about $61 million, to Tornado Cash after two dormant months, still holding roughly $194 million from the North Korea-linked April hack.
• Mesh partnered with Visa to let users spend crypto and stablecoin balances from participating wallet apps at over 175 million merchant locations without needing a separate card.
• French deputies passed the swap tax by one vote, while a separate proposal forcing holders to declare self-custody wallets holding over €100,000 drew backlash over kidnapping risks.
• Bitmine added 12,535 ETH to reach 6,041,481 ETH, 4.9% of supply, staking 84% of it for projected annualized revenue of $309 million, as Tom Lee blamed regional de-risking.
• Anthropic committed 5% of its shares to a Public Benefit Fund ahead of an IPO, and Elon Musk answered by pledging one SpaceX share to every American child.