Key Points
The concept of DeSci is not a recent development. Binance Labs announced its first investment in BIO Protocol, and CZ and Vitalik attended Binance's Desci Day event in Bangkok, once again drawing market attention to DeSci.
The DeSci sector currently has a relatively low market capitalization, and it is also one of the focus areas for top-tier VCs. In addition to Binance Labs starting to explore the healthcare sector, a16z has also begun to invest in the DeSci field.
DeSci sector projects are currently in the early exploration stage, and the BIO ecosystem and related memes are areas worth paying attention to.
Recently, the DeSci sector has started to gain significant traction, with related memecoins $RIF and $URO surging by as much as 200% in a single day, repeatedly igniting market sentiment. Binance's exclusive investment in the DeSci sector protocol BIO Protocol has become a focus of market attention. What is the DeSci sector that has been highlighted by CZ and Vitalik? Can this market sentiment be sustained?
Why DeSci Suddenly Became a Hot Topic
DeSci (Decentralized Science) is an innovative concept that combines blockchain technology with scientific research, aiming to reshape the current methods of funding, collaboration, data sharing, and research output dissemination. The goal of DeSci is to create a more open, transparent, fair, and efficient scientific ecosystem.
In fact, the concept of DeSci is not a recent development. As early as March this year, Binance provided an explanation of the DeSci concept. The sudden surge in DeSci's popularity stems from two recent events: On November 8th, Binance Labs announced its first investment in BIO Protocol, which is also Binance Labs' first foray into the decentralized science (DeSci) field; On November 13th, CZ and Vitalik jointly attended Binance's Desci Day event in Bangkok, and DeSci began to receive market attention.
Source: Desci Day event
Subsequently, the DeSci sector-related memecoins $RIF and $URO surged by as much as 200% in a single day, and the DeSci sector has since received even more market attention. Can the DeSci sector continue to develop? How far can the bio memes go? What potential projects in the DeSci sector are worth our attention?
Projects in the DeSci Sector Worth Watching
According to Coingeck data, as of November 20th, the total market capitalization of the DeSci sector is $1.2 billion. Compared to other popular sectors such as AI, the DeSci sector currently has room for further growth.
Source: Coingeck
The DeSci sector is also one of the focus areas for top-tier VCs. In addition to Binance Labs starting to explore the healthcare sector, a16z has also begun to invest in the DeSci field, with AminoChain being one of the projects they have invested in. AminoChain primarily aims to power the modernization of biospecimen processing by connecting data between healthcare companies. On September 25th, it completed a $5 million seed round financing and has not yet had a TGE.
Source: AminoChain
CZ is also very optimistic about this sector, believing that DeSci has tremendous potential. DeSci has the potential to solve the shortcomings of traditional scientific research, and the spirit of DeSci can also help explore scientific research in areas such as human health and longevity.
However, DeSci-related projects are all in the very early stages of exploration, and currently, the main areas to focus on are the BIO ecosystem and related memes.
I.BIO Protocol Ecosystem
BIO Protocol aims to build a global platform for scientific research funding and collaboration using blockchain and DAO technology, with the hope of leveraging blockchain technology to help solve currently intractable problems such as rare diseases, longevity research, and emerging health issues.
1. $BIO (BIO Protocol)
On November 13th, the auction rounds for BIO Protocol have concluded, with the average auction price in the first round being $0.025 and the average price in the final round being $0.066, representing a 164% increase. The $BIO token has not yet been listed, but it is worth noting that there was significant participation from Chinese KOLs in the BIO auction rounds.
Source: BIO Protocol
2. BIO Protocol Collaborative DAO Projects
BIO Protocol's network currently has nearly ten BIO DAOs, which are running on the Ethereum network and plan to expand to Solana and other chains in the first quarter of 2025. These DAOs cover multiple directions, including women's health and mental health. The representative projects among these collaborative DAOs include:
Source: BIO Protocol
$VITA (VitaDAO): VitaDAO is the most well-known of the seven DAOs, and many of BIO's core members also come from VitaDAO. VitaDAO is a group focused on funding early-stage longevity research, and its first longevity product, VD 001, is a natural high-dose spermidine supplement that has received Thai FDA approval. At the Desci Day event in Bangkok on November 13th, Vitalik showed CZ the VD 001, and subsequently, $VITA surged by 82.4% on the same day, with the current $VITA price at $5.23.
$RSC (ResearchHub): ResearchHub was founded by a Coinbase co-founder and is a platform that rewards users for publishing high-quality content, with RSC being the native token of the ResearchHub platform.
$HAIR (HairDAO): Dedicated to solving hair health issues, developing proprietary products, and promoting the application of related patents, such as the "Follicool" product supported by its community.
$ATH (AthenaDAO): AthenaDAO focuses on the research and development of women's health, such as reproductive health and the treatment of female-specific diseases. By supporting interdisciplinary research, it drives innovation and technology transfer in women's medicine, helping to fill the funding gaps in traditional research.
$CRYO (CryoDAO): CryoDAO focuses on the research of cryopreservation technology, collaborating with institutions such as the University of Oxford to promote the application of cryogenic technology in biomedical fields.
$GROW (ValleyDAO): A decentralized, community-governed platform focused on anti-aging drugs and longevity projects.
$PSY (PsyDAO): PsyDAO supports research on the use of psychedelic drugs in the treatment of mental illnesses, such as PTSD and depression. It promotes the establishment of a trial and data sharing platform for psychedelic drugs.
According to the BIO treasury allocation, the DAO with the largest allocation is VitaDAO, accounting for 51.2%.
Source: BIO Protocol
II. Major Memecoins
To understand the DeSci sector-related memes, one must first understand the Pump.Science platform.
Pump.Science is a new meme launch platform launched by the Solana ecosystem DeSci platform Molecule DAO. Unlike other pumps, the meme tokens issued by Pump.Science must be related to the scientific field, and when the token market capitalization reaches $10,000, the medical research organization will conduct experiments on the drug, and the experimental results will be regularly published on the platform, allowing players to predict the drug's effects and continue to buy and sell the meme tokens based on the results.
Pump.Science has mainly issued two meme tokens, $RIF and $URO. In addition, there are related memes with donation concepts and quantum entanglement concepts. However, meme tokens are heavily influenced by market sentiment and experience significant volatility. As of the time of writing, most of the related meme tokens have started to decline. The main memes are as follows:
1. Pump.Science Concepts
$RIF (Rifampicin), which focuses on the antibiotic concept and primarily explores the treatment of tuberculosis infections, is currently the leading meme coin.
$URO (Urolithin A), Urolithin A is a natural metabolite found in pomegranates and other nuts, mainly exploring the direction of life extension.
2. Donation Concept
$Scihub, mainly around the world's largest free paper download center Sci-hub, which faces legal issues due to open source, the platform is maintained solely by donations, mainly exploring the direction of scientific research copyright and related issues.
3. Quantum Entanglement Concept
The quantum entanglement concept has two tokens, $PRO and $ANTI, which are independent on the chain, but custom contracts can "entangle" their token economics. The innovation of this economic model is that: in theory, 1 ANTi should be equal to 1 PRO. If the price of one token rises, the other will fluctuate accordingly; when the prices of the two tokens differ, holders can achieve arbitrage through exchange operations to push the price back to balance; this mechanism encourages more transactions and interactions, increasing market activity.
Prospects of DeSci
The development of the DeSci field has undoubtedly injected new hope for humanity in the fields of longevity and bioscience, and the combination of DeSci and cryptocurrencies is more likely to improve the inefficiency of traditional scientific research. The free philosophy of DeSci has ignited new hope for more scientific researchers.
However, it is worth noting that the research in bioscience requires a long development cycle. Most DeSci projects are currently in a very early exploratory stage, and the impact of cryptocurrencies on the scientific research system remains to be further verified.
