Worldcoin Foundation is phasing out rewarding its Orb device operators — those who verify people’s “uniqueness and humanness” — with USD Coin (USDC) and fully transitioning to using its native Worldcoin (WLD) token.

“During a transitional phase after launch, these Operator rewards were paid in USDC. This transitional phase is now nearing its end, at which point Worldcoin Operators will instead receive rewards in the form of WLD,” an Oct. 22 blog post said.

The transitional phase began on Oct. 10 and is expected to be completed by November, affecting most jurisdictions. However, the blog post clarified that WLD tokens are currently not available to people or companies living or operating in the United States or “certain other restricted territories.

The transition comes as the WLD token’s circulating supply has grown from approximately 100 million since its launch on July 24 to more than 134 million on Oct. 23, according to blockchain data platform Dune Analytics.

“The WLD token was launched with a relatively low circulating supply of just above 100M WLD. This was due to the goal of creating a network of as many human beings as possible,” the blog post said. “To achieve this, the majority of the WLD token supply will be given to new and existing users in the form of user grants over the years to come.”

Of the roughly 134 million WLD in circulation as of Oct. 22, 100 million were distributed as loans to market makers, 34.3 million to user grants, and some small amount to Orb operators as rewards.

Worldcoin is an identity protocol backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman. The protocol employs a hardware device called Orb to identify individuals and prove they are human by scanning their irises. Verified users are then rewarded with WLD tokens on the project’s app, while operators were paid for in USDC. It remains unclear how much said operators earn from each scan.