Written by: Luke, Mars Finance
The Road to DeSci's Explosion
This weekend, the decentralized science (DeSci) track suddenly became the focus of the industry. This wave of enthusiasm stemmed from Binance Labs' investment in BIO Protocol and the chain reactions it triggered. The announcement of the investment reignited the previously low-profile DeSci concept in the market, leading to a series of strong performances by various projects and tokens. From Binance founder CZ and Vitalik Buterin's DeSci gathering in Bangkok to BIO Protocol's successful token financing in Genesis Round 2.5, these events indicate that the DeSci track is undergoing a new wave of attention.
The rise of DeSci did not happen overnight but is the result of a series of actions gradually elevating it. First, on November 8, Binance Labs announced its investment in BIO Protocol, marking Binance Labs' first official entry into the DeSci track. BIO Protocol is known as the 'on-chain science version of Y Combinator,' with its core idea of incubating and funding scientific research projects in a decentralized manner to break through traditional research funding bottlenecks. Y Combinator, as one of the most well-known startup incubators, has helped the success of a series of startups like Airbnb, Coinbase, etc., and BIO Protocol provides similar funding support and incubation services for scientific projects through on-chain operations.
BIO Protocol not only serves as an important driving force in the DeSci track, but its internal BioDAO sub-DAO structure is also crucial. One of the most well-known sub-DAOs is VitaDAO, which was also founded by members of the BIO Protocol team. VitaDAO focuses on early research in longevity science and is one of the most successful cases in the BIO ecosystem.
Immediately following, on November 13, Binance founder CZ attended the DeSci Day event in Bangkok and discussed the development direction of DeSci alongside Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. This public appearance deepened the market's interest in DeSci, especially the endorsement from these two top figures in the crypto industry opened up more possibilities for the future of this field. At this event, Vitalik also presented CZ with the first longevity product developed by VitaDAO, VD001, a natural high-dose spermidine supplement approved by the Thai FDA. This not only reflects the actual progress of DeSci in scientific research but also shows its potential integration with traditional biotechnology and drug development fields.
In addition, on November 13, BIO Protocol just completed its Genesis Round 2.5 token financing, raising a total of $2.9 million, with the total value of assets exchanged for BIO reaching $2.93 million. Following this financing completion, there has been a significant surge in DeSci-related tokens in the market, particularly tokens like VITA, GROW, and RSC, which have shown outstanding performance during this period, even maintaining strong upward momentum amid market corrections. The financing of BIO Protocol and the public interactions with CZ and Vitalik undoubtedly provided a strong catalyst for this wave of growth.
Another key node in the DeSci track is the organic combination of DeSci with the meme culture of the crypto world, producing a unique catalytic effect. Unlike BIO, which is more suitable for institutional investors, DeSci Meme provides a low-threshold channel for players in the circle to understand and participate in DeSci.
BIO Protocol's Pump.Science aims to incentivize users to participate in scientific research, particularly in the drug research field, through meme tokens. These sub-DAOs and platforms are closely linked, forming a collaborative ecosystem that provides funding support and experimental platforms for scientific research, jointly promoting the development of DeSci.
This combination greatly enhances the dissemination and market attention of DeSci projects. During this period, the meme tokens RIF and URO from the Pump.Science platform skyrocketed 100 times and 20 times, respectively, within just two days. Although they later experienced dramatic fluctuations, the underlying participation mechanism—using memes to incentivize users to engage in drug research—has gained wide market recognition and signifies a stage of success in combining scientific research with crypto culture.
So, after all this, what is DeSci?
Science is the fundamental tool driving human progress; it is a system for exploring nature and explaining empirical observations. Over time, scientific research has developed into a complex human system that requires efficient collaboration of various resources. However, the existing scientific system faces many challenges, including lengthy funding application processes, closed organizational structures, and imperfect result attribution and sharing mechanisms, which severely hinder scientific progress.
To address these dilemmas, decentralized science (DeSci) has emerged. DeSci utilizes emerging technologies such as blockchain to reshape the funding, result attribution, and collaboration mechanisms of scientific research, aiming to improve research efficiency, reduce costs, and promote fairness in research. This is not only a technological innovation but also a systemic revolution.
As physicist David Deutsch said, the essence of science lies in the continuous development of knowledge, understanding the physical world, and exploring how to make it conform to our wishes. DeSci is guided by this idea, reconstructing the way scientific research is conducted through tools such as smart contracts, token incentives, and DAO organizations. It transforms science from the exclusive domain of centralized systems into an open, transparent, and decentralized public participation process.
Traditional scientific funding mainly relies on government agencies and large foundations, which often leads to scientists facing stringent approval processes in this centralized system. In contrast, DeSci achieves a decentralized source of research funding through DAO organizations and token incentive mechanisms. Scientists can directly present projects to decentralized communities to obtain funding, which not only accelerates the funding acquisition process but also provides development opportunities for non-mainstream, innovative research directions, greatly enhancing the inclusivity of scientific research.
The narrative of DeSci is undeniably sexy for the entire industry; it is a story of small money doing big things—retail investors pooling their resources to support scientific breakthroughs, giving everyone the opportunity to participate in shaping future science through blockchain technology. This vision is filled with imagination for human progress and has significant investment return potential.
Inventory of the DeSci ecosystem, what potential blue chips are there?
The concept of DeSci first appeared in a blog post by Martin Etzrodt in 2018, and it was not until 2021 that the DeSci track and projects began to occasionally surface, with low public discussion. During this period, some projects have already established a foothold in the track over time. Of course, what we are discussing now are value-oriented project tokens, while Meme will be set aside for now and discussed later.
1. Molecule
Market Cap: $25 million
FDV: $25 million
7-day increase: 636%
Molecule is currently one of the most influential projects in the DeSci field, dedicated to providing funding and infrastructure support for biotechnology research. It creates a new intellectual property management model called IP-NFT, allowing researchers to convert ownership of scientific research into blockchain-based NFTs, thereby creating a new market for trading and sharing biopharmaceutical assets. The Molecule project aims to break the traditional scientific funding model, with its ecosystem covering two core modules: Molecule Discovery and Molecule Finance, promoting decentralized drug development.
To promote the supply and demand in the market, Molecule has developed a unique incubator/accelerator program - bio.xyz. Through this program, Molecule has built and incubated bioDAO, and there is no doubt that Molecule is the big brother in this field.
2. VitaDAO
Market Cap: $150 million
FDV: $161 million
7-day increase: 229%
VitaDAO is the world's first biotechnology DAO, where researchers at different career stages around the globe, including professors, research scientists, postdoctoral researchers, and students, as well as biotech startups, can apply for funding from VitaDAO. VitaDAO seeks therapeutic interventions that can extend the healthy lifespan of different species or projects that treat/prevent various aging-related diseases.
It uses IP-NFT technology for intellectual property attribution and sharing, transforming scientific intellectual property and research data into digital assets, allowing holders to participate in governance together, thus promoting the openness and fairness of science. VitaDAO attracts numerous investors and scientists, and has also received funding support from well-known companies such as Pfizer, actively advancing cutting-edge research in the field of longevity.
The main focus of VitaDAO's funding is on translational research, aiming to develop patented new therapies or diagnostic methods with potential commercial value. Typically, VitaDAO's funding covers 1-2 years of research and development, amounting to $250,000. While the funding amount may vary, priority is given to projects with lower budgets.
3. ResearchCoin
Market Cap: $90 million
FDV: $93 million
7-day increase: 152%
ResearchCoin is a crypto research platform co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and others, belonging to the DeSci (Decentralized Science) track. The project aims to change the traditional model of publishing scientific journals. Users earn ResearchCoin (RSC) by publishing content on ResearchHub, with the amount of RSC received proportional to the value that other community members assign to the content.
4. GenomesDAO
Market Cap: $27 million
FDV: $27 million
7-day increase: 157.8%
GenomesDAO is a biotechnology DAO dedicated to achieving secure, privacy-protected, and auditable monetization of genomic data through DeFi. For individual users, GenomesDAO offers clinical-grade whole genome sequencing services, personalized genomic reports based on these data, and the ability to securely store data in a personal DNA vault. For institutional organizations, GenomesDAO provides DNA vault technology for creating secure genomic databases owned by participants. For researchers, GenomesDAO offers convenient access to high-quality genomic datasets to assist in disease causation research and new drug development. The GENE token is used to pay for whole genome sequencing services and serves as an incentive mechanism for querying encrypted DNA data vaults.
5. Data Lake
Market Cap: $24 million
FDV: $44 million
7-day increase: 166%
Data Lake has created a global medical data donation system based on blockchain technology, aimed at supporting medical research and AI development.
This system is built on the Polygon network and the $LAKE token, connecting patients with researchers who need medical data. This innovative model supports researchers in finding new disease treatment methods, ultimately improving healthcare quality and patient outcomes.
Data Lake can securely obtain medical data from donors' healthcare providers, anonymize it, and then provide it for researchers to use. At the same time, the platform allows hospitals and data donors to share the benefits brought by the medical data economy, creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem.
Currently, these leading projects in the DeSci space belong to veteran projects that have weathered the bull and bear markets, with low market capitalizations in the tens of millions of dollars, and most tokens have already been released. In terms of projects, Molecule, Vita, and Research belong to a leading group endorsed by top institutions, and several projects influence each other, with some developers being shared among them, tightly collaborating to build a closed-loop ecosystem. Although the implementation of each project is somewhat disappointing, the temporary impact of adoption is limited, and in the short term, there are no competitors in the same field.
Value tokens are like this; the real focus of the market is actually Meme, after all, this bull market has memes everywhere.
DeSci + Meme, the next top narrative alongside AI Meme?
During the two days of the weekend, the $RIF skyrocketing 100 times was the key horn that triggered the DeSci craze, and its brother $URO also surged 20 times; both are tokens issued by the Pump.Science platform, known as the twin stars of Pump.Sci.
The Pump.Science platform is a unique meme token issuance platform launched by Molecule DAO, designed to closely integrate ordinary users with drug research through token economics, providing a new funding and participation model for scientific research. The core logic of the platform is that users can participate in drug experiments by trading meme tokens representing drugs and can trade and invest based on experimental progress and market performance. This model not only increases the transparency of scientific research but also offers ordinary investors the opportunity to participate in scientific breakthroughs.
Specifically, the operation of Pump.Science can be divided into the following steps:
Drug proposal submission and token issuance: First, scientific researchers can submit their drug research proposals on the Pump.Science platform. After passing community and expert reviews, the proposals will be tokenized in the form of meme tokens on the platform. Each drug research proposal will correspond to the issuance of a specific meme token, which represents the research and experimental process of that drug.
User participation and token trading: Users can support the drug research projects they believe are promising by purchasing these meme tokens. The act of purchasing tokens actually amounts to 'voting' support for the drug experiment, and these funds will be used for drug research and experiments. After the tokens are listed, users can view all published drug experiment projects on Pump.Science's Marketplace page, understand the experimental progress and market performance of each project. Users can choose to buy or sell tokens to gain potential profits.
Experimental progress and market feedback: When the market capitalization of a certain drug reaches a specific threshold (for example, $10,000), the medical research organization ORA Biomedical will begin experiments using that drug and will regularly publish experimental results on the Pump.Science platform. Users can view this experimental data on the platform and adjust their investment strategies based on data changes. If the experimental results are significant, such as extending the lifespan of experimental worms, then the prices of the meme tokens related to that drug typically rise, allowing users to profit.
Gamified incentives and cyclical mechanisms: Pump.Science combines longevity research with token trading, quantifying the potential value of drugs through indicators such as 'percentage of lifespan extension' (PLE) and incentivizing users to participate actively. When drug experiments show positive effects, more users may rush in to buy the meme tokens of that drug, further pushing up its market price. In addition, the platform will also increase the scarcity of tokens through token buyback and destruction mechanisms, thus increasing market value. This gamified mechanism makes the entire process not just scientific research but more like a prediction game about drug experiments.
Specifically, the current tokens $RIF (Rifampicin) and $URO (Urolithin) represent two drugs tested in experiments: Rifampicin is an antibiotic used to study its potential in extending lifespan; Urolithin is a metabolite extracted from pomegranates and other fruits, known for its potential to extend lifespan. Why does RIF rise more sharply? Because the antibiotic $RIF extends the lifespan of worms by 32.87%, while the compound $URO extends it by 6.35%. Thus, $RIF becomes the leader, and the logic behind it is that simple and brutal.
The DeSci Meme track $RIF has already stabilized, with its market cap skyrocketing to $180 million at the time of writing, while the second leader $URO has a market cap of $64 million.
In addition, the following DeSci Meme projects are also gaining initial popularity within the community:
SciHub
Market Cap: $47 million
24h Trading Volume: $73 million
7-day increase of 417% Sci-Hub is a shadow library. It uses various methods to bypass publishers' paywalls, providing millions of academic papers and works without considering copyright issues. In 2011, Kazakh graduate student Alexandra Elbakyan decided to establish Sci-Hub due to the high costs of research papers behind paywalls. It faces legal issues due to its open-source nature and relies solely on donations for maintenance.
WTF Academy founder @0xAA_Science believes that Scihub is the biggest DeSci application. Therefore, he bought 22% of the related contracts on pump.fun. He then transferred 110 million SCIHUB tokens to the donation address of Sci-Hub's founder on Solana. The subsequent plan is to donate 1% of SCIHUB on the 16th of each month for nine consecutive months, starting December 16, 2024 (a total of 90 million tokens), accounting for 20% of the total circulation.
Quantum Entanglement DeSci Dual Token: ANTI & PRO
ANTI market cap is $10.3 million, with a 24h trading volume of $43.25 million;
PRO market capitalization is currently reported at $11.18 million, with a 24h trading volume of $42.08 million.
This concept is mainly based on the physical concept of quantum entanglement; simply put, these two tokens are actually the same, so they should have the same price. As for how to achieve the same price, it is still unclear what technology has been used. The developer @sshmatrix_ stated that a roadmap will be released in the next two days; in addition, he is also the developer of ERC7700, with strong coding skills.
Binance's strategic layout, what are the prospects?
Recently, major cryptocurrency platforms such as Binance have shown a strong focus on strategic layouts in the DeSci field. Binance has made a high-profile entry by investing in projects like Molecule and BIO. These investments not only expand Binance's own ecological map but also reflect a deep recognition and resource input into the decentralized science field. Binance's participation signifies that DeSci has begun to attract attention from the mainstream crypto market and may attract more institutional capital in the future, promoting the rapid expansion of DeSci projects' application scenarios. In addition, CZ's strong endorsement is a clear signal for investors: decentralized science is becoming a new trend in the crypto industry.
From the perspective of the evolution of asset issuance, DeSci can be seen as the third iteration of blockchain financing models:
First-generation ICO: Virtual assets create virtual value by using virtual currencies like ETH to issue new tokens, but often lack clear use cases;
DeFi wave: Real applications derived from virtual value based on actual financial function product issuance governance tokens, but intrinsic value remains unclear;
DeSci Era: Virtual assets support real research by providing funding for real scientific research projects through cryptocurrency asset pools and speculative tokens.
This new asset issuance logic marks the deep application of blockchain technology in the real economy. DeSci is not just a financing model; it is a deep integration of scientific research and blockchain technology. It brings new possibilities to the traditional scientific research system.
However, the development of DeSci still faces many challenges. How to balance short-term speculation with long-term research value, how to ensure that research quality is not affected by market speculation, and how to handle potential regulatory issues are all key problems that DeSci needs to solve in the future. With more institutions and individuals participating, DeSci is expected to become an important force driving innovation in web3, opening up new pathways for human knowledge advancement.
