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Spain Bans Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Amid Data Collection Concerns

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Spain Bans Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Amid Data Collection Concerns

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Spain has banned Worldcoin, a digital ID cryptocurrency venture launched by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, after the country’s privacy watchdog cited concerns over how the company’s eyeball-scanning technology collects and processes biometric data.

Key Facts

The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) issued a precautionary measure Wednesday that prohibits Worldcoin’s activities in the country for up to three months, after the agency received “several complaints” about alleged insufficient information, the collection of data from minors and concerns that consent can’t be withdrawn.

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Worldcoin’s World ID requires users to scan their eyeballs through “orbs,” a device that captures an image of the user’s irises, before they receive a unique form of identification and the Worldcoin cryptocurrency.

AEPD requested Tools for Humanity, the company that collects and processes users’ personal data, to cease collecting additional data for new users in the country and stop using the data already gathered by Worldcoin.

Processing biometric data requires “special protection” because of “high risks to the rights of individuals,” including possible data transfers to third parties, the agency said.

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Jannick Preiwisch, Worldcoin’s data protection officer, said in a statement to Forbes the Spanish agency was “circumventing EU law” while spreading “inaccurate and misleading claims” about the company, which added its World ID was “the most privacy-preserving and safest solution for asserting humanness in the age of AI.”

What To Watch For

Preiwisch noted Worldcoin has been communicating with data protection officials in Bavaria, the region of Germany where Tools for Humanity is located. Michael Will, president of Bavaria’s data watchdog, told Reuters discussions with Worldcoin would result in a “final evaluation” for other European agencies “very soon.”

Big Number

4 million. That’s how many people across 120 countries have signed up to have their eyes scanned through Worldcoin’s “orb,” according to the company.

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Key Background

Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency and digital ID project, launched last year following a yearslong development process. The project aimed at resolving issues presented by developments in artificial intelligence, including challenges verifying someone’s identity. Worldcoin provides users with a unique digital identity after their eyes are scanned by a silver orb. Prospective users were incentivized to join the project through the Worldcoin cryptocurrency token, which becomes available to new users. Worldcoin has suffered from technical issues since its launch, with some users saying they were unable to claim their tokens after their eyes were scanned. One Kenya-based operator told Forbes that Worldcoin failed to respond to hundreds of complaints after its network went offline less than two weeks after its launch. Some users also managed to trick the orb into creating multiple Worldcoin accounts for the same person.

Further Reading

What Is Worldcoin? Here’s What To Know About The Eyeball-Scanning Crypto Project Launched By OpenAI’s Sam Altman (Forbes)

Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Soars After Launch Of OpenAI’s ‘Sora’ Video Tool (Forbes)

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3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks With More Potential Than Any Cryptocurrency | The Motley Fool

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3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks With More Potential Than Any Cryptocurrency | The Motley Fool

SoundHound AI, Lemonade, and CoreWeave will all profit from that secular trend.

Over the past few years, many growth-oriented investors with a high tolerance for risk have pivoted toward the cryptocurrency market. Several of the top tokens — like Bitcoin (BTC 2.52%) and Ether (ETH 3.84%) — generated impressive gains within a short time. However, many of the smaller altcoins and meme coins fizzled out during the last crypto winter.

Instead of chasing those volatile tokens, which are usually driven by supply and demand, it might be smarter to invest in the market’s more speculative artificial intelligence (AI) plays. Let’s take a look at three of those promising tech stocks — SoundHound AI (SOUN +1.65%), Lemonade (LMND 0.97%), and CoreWeave (CRWV +6.55%) — and see why they could have more growth potential than the market’s hottest cryptocurrencies.

Image source: Getty Images.

SoundHound AI

SoundHound AI develops AI-powered voice and audio recognition tools. Its namesake app can identify songs by hearing just a few seconds of recorded audio or a few hummed bars. However, it generates most of its revenue and growth from Houndify, its developer-oriented platform for creating customized voice recognition apps for a wide range of industries.

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SoundHound AI Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(1.65%) $0.18

Current Price

$11.10

SoundHound has been acquiring smaller companies to expand its presence in the restaurant and customer service chatbot markets. It already serves automakers like Stellantis, restaurants like Chipotle, and credit card giants like Mastercard, and it should attract more customers who want to develop their own voice recognition services without sharing their data with larger tech companies.

From 2025 to 2027, analysts expect SoundHound’s revenue to grow at a 30% CAGR, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) turning positive in the final year. With an enterprise value of $4.5 billion, it might seem pricey at 20 times this year’s sales. However, its early mover’s advantage in the growing voice recognition services market should justify that higher valuation. Over the next decade, it should continue to expand and evolve as it acquires more companies and rolls out more agentic AI tools.

Lemonade

Lemonade sells homeowners, renters, term life, pet, and auto insurance policies. It’s popular with younger and first-time insurance customers because it simplifies the byzantine buying process with a streamlined AI-powered app.

Using AI chatbots instead of human representatives can quickly onboard new customers and process claims in a few seconds. From the end of 2020 to the third quarter of 2025, its customer base nearly tripled from 1.00 million to 2.87 million.

Lemonade Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(-0.97%) $-0.78

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Current Price

$79.41

From 2025 to 2027, analysts expect Lemonade’s revenue and adjusted EBITDA to grow at a CAGR of 44%, with adjusted EBITDA turning positive in the final year. The expansion of its newer pet and auto insurance businesses, its overseas growth (especially in Europe), and its rollout of more AI features should drive those gains.

With an enterprise value of $6.2 billion, Lemonade still looks reasonably valued at five times this year’s sales. However, it could command a much higher valuation if it scales up its business and pulls millions of customers away from traditional insurance companies.

CoreWeave

CoreWeave was once an Ethereum miner, but it abandoned that business model after the 2018 cryptocurrency crash. It subsequently repurposed its mining GPUs to remotely process machine learning and AI tasks, acquired more than 250,000 high-end data center GPUs from Nvidia, and expanded its business from three data centers at the end of 2022 to 33 data centers today.

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CoreWeave Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(6.55%) $6.22

Current Price

$101.23

CoreWeave claims its dedicated cloud-based GPUs can process AI tasks 35 times faster and 80% more cost-effectively than other cloud infrastructure platforms. Those strengths make it a popular choice for companies which don’t want to expand their own infrastructure to support their latest AI applications. As it locks in more AI customers — including Microsoft and OpenAI — analysts expect its revenue and adjusted EBITDA to grow at a CAGR of 95% and 109%, respectively, from 2025 to 2027.

CoreWeave is growing like a weed, yet it has an enterprise value of only $87.9 billion — which equates to 7x this year’s sales and 11x adjusted EBITDA. The high costs of opening new data centers are likely compressing its near-term valuations, but it could have plenty of room to grow over the long term as the cloud and AI markets expand.

Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Ethereum, Lemonade, Mastercard, Microsoft, Nvidia, and SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool recommends Stellantis and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft, and short March 2026 $42.50 calls on Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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XRP Drops Hard as Key Zone Breaks During Broad Crypto Sell-Off

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XRP Drops Hard as Key Zone Breaks During Broad Crypto Sell-Off
XRP slid sharply below key support as a broad crypto sell-off intensified, wiping out leveraged positions, driving extreme oversold signals, and exposing mounting macro and regulatory stress that continues to weigh on digital asset prices.
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Bitcoin Long Signal That Preceded 370% Move Is About To Go Off Again — What To Know

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Bitcoin Long Signal That Preceded 370% Move Is About To Go Off Again — What To Know

Going into the weekend, the price of Bitcoin was unable to sustain the bullish momentum it displayed earlier in the past week. Since Friday, January 16th, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, repudiated by the price resistance above, now trades in a tight consolidatory bracket. Interestingly, this period of silence has been deemed transient, as recent on-chain data suggests an exciting time ahead for the BTC price.

Kimchi Premium Flips Positive As Local Demand Sees Buildup 

In a January 17 post on the X platform, DeFi asset management platform XWIN Finance released an on-chain report, which suggests that Bitcoin might be closer to reaching a turning point than is apparent in its price action. 

This hypothesis is based on the Bitcoin Kimchi Premium indicator. This measures the percentage difference between a cryptocurrency’s price (in this case, Bitcoin) on South Korean exchanges and its price on global exchanges. Simply put, it shows how much more Korean traders are willing to pay for Bitcoin.

When the Kimchi Premium transitions steadily from low or negative levels to cross above historically significant levels, this is typically viewed as a long signal from the metric. This interpretation is because a rising Kimchi Premium reflects growing local demand in South Korea, usually often influenced by retail buyers.

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In essence, Korean buyers are willing to pay more for Bitcoin, hence overwhelming the available supply and consequently pushing prices upwards.

In the post on X, XWIN Finance highlighted that this long signal had been sighted on the indicator. History also attests to the bullish significance of this signal; there have been major price moves to the upside following sustained increases in the Kimchi Premium.

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An example is the last sighting of the long signal in October 2023, where the index rose above a major threshold, as shown in the chart above. The price of Bitcoin witnessed a 370% rally after this signal went off in 2023. 

According to XWIN Research, this same pattern seems to be playing out again in 2026. Hence, if the Kimchi Premium completes its long-signal formation, it could be a sign that buyers are occupying favourable positions for a bullish ride. 

If history does repeat itself, the Bitcoin price could be on track to witness another exciting voyage, with the flagship cryptocurrency possibly putting in a more than 300% surge in the next cycle. 

However, it is worth noting that macro conditions, institutional demand, and derivatives activity would be playing their roles to augment the pattern’s plausibility, as it should not be viewed as a standalone bullish sign.

Bitcoin Price At A Glance

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As of this writing, the price of BTC stands at around $95,280, reflecting no significant change in the past 24 hours.

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