Biological experiments meme skyrocketing a thousand times a week, hot money is flowing into DeSci

Author: Rhythm BlockBeats

In the past week, DeSci has suddenly become a hot topic of discussion again. Since Binance Labs announced its investment in BIO Protocol, tokens in the DeSci field such as VITA, GROW, and RSC have all seen significant increases, maintaining strong performance even during the recent market correction. The previously low-profile BIO Genesis event was quickly filled to capacity, and even the pump experimental platform launched by the BIO team has been "revived." It seems that all the hot money in crypto is now flowing into DeSci.

The "Revived" Official Experimental Platform

The meme market continues to be hot, and from various narrative angles, the meme coins in the DeSci field, RIF and URO, have surged 20 times in less than two days. These two tokens come from the Pump.science platform and represent the compounds Rifampicin (RIF) and Urokinase (URO).

Pump.science is a meme token issuance platform launched by the DeSci project Molecule DAO, supporting medical experiments through meme coins. The tokens RIF and URO did not generate much buzz upon their launch, with a market cap hovering around $150,000. However, in the past two days, RIF and URO have continuously broken new highs, with a market cap reaching nearly $3 million, marking a 20-fold increase.

Pump.Science is a meme token issuance platform launched by Molecule DAO at this year's Token 2049 Solana Breakpoint conference. Players can purchase meme tokens representing drugs and participate in predicting drug effects and trading experimental data. The recent "revival" of Pump.science can be attributed to Binance's frequent actions in the DeSci field.

On November 8, Binance Labs announced its investment in BIO Protocol, marking Binance Labs' first foray into the decentralized science (DeSci) field. Less than a week after this announcement, CZ attended the DeSci Day event held by Binance in Bangkok, where he discussed DeSci insights with Vitalik.

Regarding BIO Protocol, it focuses on the medical research field, using blockchain technology to change the financing and commercialization methods of early scientific research. BIO Protocol founder Paul Kohlhaas has stated that BIO Protocol aims to break the traditional funding bottleneck in scientific research and promote patient-driven research globally, bringing about revolutionary changes.

At the DeSci Day event in Bangkok, Vitalik Buterin also showcased VitaDAO's first longevity product—VD001, a natural high-dose spermidine supplement approved by the Thai FDA. CZ expressed his hope to see "1,000 DeSci projects next year."

During these days, various DeSci project tokens have seen significant price increases. In addition to RIF and URO mentioned at the beginning of the article, VitaDAO token VITA and DeSci project ResearchCoin token RSC have also shown impressive gains.

The Favorite Track of Crypto Tycoons?

In fact, DeSci has always had a high "reputation."

As early as last year, the DeSci concept sparked a wave of interest in the Chinese community, attracting CZ's attention due to its innovations in longevity research. He stated that he has been paying attention to biotechnology and thinking about how to use crypto technology to accelerate the flow of research funding in this field, which became a key point for the resurgence of DeSci.

Not only CZ, but several industry leaders also participated in the DeSci conference held in Berlin at the end of last year, such as Matti, co-founder of Zee Prime Capital, and Tyler Golato, CEO of Molecule. They actively shared their research and insights on DeSci and had high expectations for the field.

Over a month ago, a16z also made its first foray into the DeSci field by leading an investment in AminoChain, a DeSci project aimed at reforming the process of patient contribution of biological samples in the medical field. Binance has also repeatedly indicated on social media that it is ready to leverage blockchain technology to strongly support scientific projects. CZ has stated, "Innovation often occurs in small groups, and we need decentralized science because many excellent researchers cannot obtain sufficient funding."

It is foreseeable that, with Binance's promotion, the DeSci field will attract more and more attention.

Which Projects to Watch?

BIO Protocol, which received investment from Binance Labs, aims to build a global research funding and collaboration platform using blockchain and DAO, hoping to leverage blockchain technology to address currently challenging issues such as rare diseases, longevity research, and emerging health. The BIO Protocol network currently has seven BIO DAOs covering various directions such as cryopreservation, women's health, and mental health. The protocol token BIO and the tokens of its partner DAOs can be considered as points of interest.

BIO (BIO Protocol)

On August 9, BIO Protocol launched its first round of Bio Genesis token sales, with an average price of $0.025 and a trading volume of $11.51 million. The second round of token sales took place on September 30, with the average price of BIO having increased by 72% to $0.043, and the trading volume rising to $19.49 million. By the time of the public auction for the 2.5 round on November 10, the price of BIO had risen to $0.066, marking a 264% increase from the first round. Currently, the auction rounds for BIO Protocol have concluded.

VITA (VitaDAO)

VitaDAO is a group focused on funding early longevity research, having raised over $5 million and received investment from Pfizer Ventures. Since Vitalik showcased the first product VD001 developed by VitaDAO to CZ in Bangkok, VITA has entered a rapid growth phase, with a maximum daily increase of 82.4%. The latest price is $3.12, with a market cap exceeding $80 million, and a nearly threefold increase over the past week.

RSC (ResearchHub)

RSC is the native token of the ResearchHub platform, which was founded by Brian Armstrong, the co-founder of Coinbase. It is primarily used to reward users who publish high-quality content (new papers, reviews, peer reviews, and paper highlights, etc.) on the platform. Whenever users publish this content or receive likes, they earn a certain amount of RSC tokens, and the quantity of RSC can represent the user's reputation on the ResearchHub platform. The higher the reputation, the greater the power (the ability to mark, edit, or delete low-quality content, ensuring the quality of the platform's content).

ResearchHub also has a partnership with BIO Protocol, and in the past week, RSC has seen an increase of nearly 200%, with its market cap reaching $60 million again after six months.

Additionally, the tokens RIF and URO from the Pump.science platform mentioned at the beginning of the article, as well as the related developments of its incubating organization Molecule DAO, are also worth paying attention to.

However, looking back at the token history, it can be observed that RSC experienced a nearly 40-fold increase in November 2023, followed by a significant drop; VITA also fell back after reaching a market cap of around $100 million in 2022 and 2023. Whether the support from Binance Labs and CZ's heartfelt "shout-out" with Vitalik can push the DeSci track to new heights remains to be seen.