Written by: TuoLuo Finance
In terms of the hottest track in the past two weeks, it is undoubtedly DeSci.
Since November 8, when Binance Labs announced its investment in BIO Protocol, under the joint endorsement of CZ and Vitalik, this previously dormant concept has risen again, attracting a rush of hot money, with RIF and URO producing thousandfold profits, creating a new potential MEME track.
DeSci, also known as decentralized science, refers to the act of establishing public infrastructure through Web3 technology to achieve open and fair funding, storage, and dissemination of scientific knowledge, as cited by Messari. DeSci encourages scientists to openly share research results and gain recognition while allowing anyone to easily access and contribute to research results. In simple terms, DeSci aims to leverage blockchain technology to solve research problems, covering fundraising, knowledge sharing, peer review, intellectual property, and more.
In terms of track performance, DeSci focuses on fundraising directions. Most project models rely on tokenization for financing to support research and development. Meanwhile, research results mostly advocate going on-chain to improve transparency and protect intellectual property. Currently, the most core role of DeSci is to open new funding channels for scientific research that requires long-term investment, as it links the seemingly unrelated fields of crypto and scientific research, giving tokenization more practical significance, hence being strongly touted by the market as one of the cases for the practical application of MEME.
Regarding the root cause of the recent explosion of DeSci, the celebrity effect is key. On November 8, according to official disclosures, Binance completed strategic financing for BIO Protocol, bringing this 'on-chain scientific version of Y Combinator' to the forefront. Subsequently, CZ attended the DeSci Day event held by Binance in Bangkok, where Vitalik was also present. The two discussed DeSci together, further placing DeSci in the spotlight.
The crypto circle, adept at identifying hotspots, quickly surged with the DeSci craze, with Pump.Science shooting to fame and the RIF and URO projects generating thousandfold profits, leading this track to break out completely. Andrew Kang, a partner at Mechanism Capital, even wrote that 'the DeSci field now feels like the DeFi era in early 2019. Everything is still very primitive and experimental, but a basic conclusion can be drawn: it has enormous potential.' As a result, even amid significant market corrections, according to SoSoValue data, the DeSci sector still rose against the trend by 3.35%.
Although the vision for DeSci is promising and the opening of funding channels for scientific research undoubtedly has value, from the current perspective, the speculative component is clearly greater than the actual utility. Essentially, the long-term nature of scientific research presents a significant divergence from the short-term profit-seeking nature of the MEME field, making it seem rather unrealistic to hope for a balance between purely speculative MEME tracks and zero speculation in the scientific research field.
On the one hand, scientific research carries significant uncertainty, with drug development often taking more than a decade; if the direction is wrong, it can be a total loss. It requires sustainable long-term investment due to its high input and high risk characteristics, which is why research funding typically adopts a model led by the state and spearheaded by leading enterprises, combining state capital and social capital to hedge risks and maintain competitiveness. However, in the crypto market, attention is the core; hot topics are difficult to sustain, and currently, the hot money surrounding DeSci is mainly concentrated on the meme coin issuance platform Pump.Science for scientific research projects, indicating the market's focus on profit-making effects.
In fact, from a conceptual perspective, DeSci seems to have a hint of 'new wine in old bottles.' If we trace back in history, VitaDAO, initiated by Vitalik in July 2021, is the earliest and most representative DeSci project, but the development of this project has not been as dramatic as its concept.
VitaDAO is a community-owned project dedicated to funding early longevity research, aiming to promote scientific innovation through the collective strength of the community, researching and supporting projects aimed at extending human lifespan and preventing age-related diseases. In other words, VitaDAO is the DAO community dedicated to longevity research.
Previously, due to traditional pharmaceutical company Pfizer's strategic investment in the project, VitaDAO briefly sparked heated discussions, but it quickly fell silent as the discussions waned. Currently, VitaDAO is also widely laying out, not only deploying $4.2 million in funding and supporting 24 projects but also collaborating with well-known universities such as Newcastle University for research. However, relative to its actions, the actual results appear quite limited. Since 2021, until the recent Devcon, Vitalik finally showcased VitaDAO's first product, VD001.
On the other hand, although putting research results on the blockchain will strengthen transparency and protect intellectual property, which is beneficial to scientific dissemination, this point is almost structurally disruptive in the relatively closed field of scientific research. In today's research system, most research teams maintain a high degree of confidentiality regarding their research results and experimental data to prevent unauthorized individuals from stealing, using, or leaking research results, especially when deep interests are involved, as confidentiality is paramount. With the strong entry of decentralization, the security of data is also difficult to guarantee.
With the support of the above two, it can be anticipated that, aside from surface applications in research content, review fairness, and data tokenization, only topics with extremely high implementation difficulty, long duration, and high coordination will fit the crypto model. From this round of enthusiasm, most DeSci projects are targeting a core issue of common concern for all humanity - longevity, which has led the market to jokingly refer to DeSci as the on-chain elixir of life.
Ultimately, immortality is merely a beautiful vision, and the market's attention on DeSci is only for the liquidity it brings behind it. Although the BIOGenesis community fundraising activity initiated by BIOProtocol raised $33 million, and the DeSci sector has soared in the past two weeks, primary market activities are limited, and large institutions have yet to participate. From the perspective of leading projects, secondary market attention has also been mediocre, with the market caps of VITA and RIF both falling between $120 million and $200 million, far from the market caps of other leading sectors, which often exceed $1 billion.
Development status of the DeSci sector, source: sosovalue
However, looking at it from a long-term perspective, DeSci is relatively a good sector in the MEME space. Compared with other MEMEs, DeSci has a stronger narrative. While the celebrity effect is difficult to sustain, it exists due to the support of actual scientific research projects, creating a fundamental effect; any innovation in research and product development will strengthen the narrative. Moreover, the biomedical sector is generally open to fundraising, and the emerging nature of this field makes it more likely to connect with the crypto space. Additionally, DeSci has the potential for a breakout effect; the current celebrity effect in this sector is temporarily concentrated within the crypto community, led by Vitalik and CZ, while celebrities from traditional medical and research fields have yet to enter, and large institutions have not yet emerged, providing direction for future narratives.
Returning to the macro market, whether it is about zoos or artists, AI-driven or research-validated, it can be seen that MEME has already become the main bearer of market funds. However, the previous round of immense wealth being absorbed still belongs to altcoins. From the perspective of the altcoin market alone, Bitcoin has risen from $10,000 to the brink of $100,000, the follow-up effect of Ethereum has significantly decreased, and the performance of altcoins has mostly declined, with only SOL and XRP among the top ten crypto assets showing an increase, making the previously common phenomenon of altcoin seasons seem difficult to replicate.
At its core, the change in the flow of funds is key. In the traditional bull market transmission, the general path is from high-stability assets gradually sinking and overflowing to low-stability assets, stimulating high-reward preferences from low-yield sources, namely mainstream coins - altcoins - MEME coins - other sectors. However, this year's path is not as it has been in the past. But currently, with the entry of institutions and the saturation of project numbers, large external new liquidity will only flow into the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the public chain ecology has not seen strong applications emerge, while altcoins are deeply mired in supply-demand crises. Bitcoin has become a siphon for ecological funds, pulling funds from other sectors, leaving only the fast-in-fast-out, wealth-effect-concentrated MEME to stand out, thus transforming altcoin season into MEME season.
A typical proof is that Pump.fun has already become the biggest winner of the bull market. According to Dune data, as of November 24, pump.fun has accumulated nearly $230 million in revenue (228,908,720 USD), with a total of approximately 3.74 million tokens deployed.
Of course, the two are not substitutes; the rise of MEME does not mean the collapse of altcoins. With regulatory easing and sector rotation, altcoins may still turn around against the wind. However, the elevation of MEME's market position undoubtedly reflects a structural change in the market. In fact, whether it is Pumpfun live broadcasts, TikTok shout-outs, or AI-driven initiatives, with the entry of Generation Z and the rapid evolution of new technologies, the crypto market is undergoing deep-seated changes in narrative logic, communication models, and operational methods.
Traditional altcoin projects' reliance on token releases to maintain long-term narratives and harvest profits is becoming unsustainable. The market is no longer willing to pay for VC tokens but is moving towards a direction that is fairer, more autonomous, and closer to the core of tokens, with attention becoming increasingly scarce. In this regard, the combination of MEME and projects seems to be more competitive than a single project; altcoins are more speculative, while MEME is relatively fair. MEME lacks long-term sustainability, while projects provide fundamental support, and the two are highly compatible, which may be one of the reasons for the rise of concepts like AIMEME and DeSci.
However, the formation of consensus is highly random, and MEME gold mines are few and far between. According to data from Panews, as of November 21, Pump.fun has issued a total of 3.59 million tokens, a quantity that far exceeds the total token issuance in the crypto world over the past 10 years. Among these, the number of tokens that have graduated (filled the curve on Raydium) is 50,389, accounting for about 1.4%. The number of tokens with a market value over $100 million is only 32, and less than one ten-thousandth of the MEME market cap exceeds $10 million.
In the long run, finding a consensus balance between attention and long-term sustainability will become an important topic for the development of MEME. However, for individuals, surviving and not going to zero is the foundation of everything.