In 2024, crypto exchanges were flooded with tokens named after scientific disciplines, chemical compounds, elements and even diseases. At the end of the year, influential industry players held a meeting with decentralized science community (DeSci) enthusiasts, after which the value of the segment soared.
We’ll cover how DAOs are raising funds for aging research and moon colonization, and why foundations are trumpeting the new trend for decentralized science. We’ll also meet worms living on the blockchain along with AI agents, and Pump Science, which has almost nothing to do with meme tokens.
Ideas meet money
Forbes predicts that digital assets will become more widely recognized in 2025, thanks to the development of dapps that solve real-world problems. The author of the publication and partner at NovaBlock Capital Lior Shimron expects the crypto market capitalization growth to exceed $8 trillion. In his opinion, this should be facilitated by the practical application of Web3 technologies combined with the influx of developers, as well as innovations in application sectors similar to DePIN and AI.
On November 13, 2024, three blockchain industry influencers met with DeSci-enthusiasts in person. The Bangkok meeting was organized by YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) and attended by ex-CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and ex-CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX Arthur Hayes.
Learning at a small gathering of DeSci entrepreneurs organized by Labs.
— CZ BNB (@cz_binance) November 13, 2024
Based on the video published on the Bio Protocol page, Buterin and CZ talked about the benefits of decentralized science and the prospects for its development. Here, for example, are theses from Zhao’s speech:
- thousands of DeSci-like projects will emerge during 2025. “We need funding for many different small experiments. Blockchain is the best way I know of to realize this. On a global level, you can fund different tasks in small installments. We need these experiments to be done by the thousands.”
- The crypto community doesn’t fully understand the value of science. “Many cryptocurrency users don’t really understand biotechnology and tend to think in the short term. But we will gradually bring the worlds of cryptocurrency and science together.”
- DAOs are an effective way to fund research and control spending. “Scientists will increasingly use cryptocurrencies for funding thanks to platforms like Molecule. We are just beginning to develop ways to control research spending through decentralized communities.”
Buterin, as a proponent of impact investing and donations in cryptocurrencies back in early 2023, spoke on The DeSci Podcast. Back then, he described DeSci as a set of ideas stemming from the question of how new decentralized technologies can make science better.
During the Q&A session, the Ethereum co-founder unexpectedly showed a sample of the first longevity product, VD001, a dietary supplement from DeSci startup VitaDAO.
Vitalik showed off his sample of @vita_dao‘s first longevity product VD001 — a natural high dose spermidine supplement approved by the Thai FDA.
— Bio Protocol (@bioprotocol)
According to the project website, the main component of the supplement is spermidine. It is a natural polyamine that stimulates cells to renew and recycle. According to VitaDAO, it slows down nine of the 12 major biological processes associated with aging. Two-thirds of the spermidine found in the human body is produced by the gut microbiota and various tissues. The remaining one-third comes from outside the body, from food.
❗ Attention: the mentioned drug has not undergone clinical trials meeting international standards and is not recognized by any medical association as a remedy with proven efficacy. Its active ingredient has the status of a dietary supplement and is also not a medicine.
The third influential guest, Arthur Hayes, did not go home empty-handed. In an essay published on January 5, 2025, the investor, in his typical manner, reported on the purchase of DeSci tokens for the family foundation.
“As the Chief Investment Officer at Maelstrom, I will encourage the fund’s risk-inclined participants to increase it to the maximum level. Our first step in this direction was our decision to actively enter the rapidly developing market of decentralized science shitcoins. We love undervalued garbage and have acquired BIO, VITA, ATH, GROW, PSY, CRYO, NEURON tokens,” Hayes stated.
Imagine the questions asked at this incubation session. Jokes aside, many thanks to @CryptoHayes for coming, and investing in the industry together.
— CZ BNB (@cz_binance) November 14, 2024
The meeting in Thailand triggered an unprecedented increase in metrics for DeSci. First, according to Google Trends, the frequency of topical queries increased exponentially.
Second, the engagement score tracked by technical analyst Kaito AI increased by 2640%.
The value of “young” DeSci tokens also increased after the Bangkok meeting. According to Messari, the top 10 assets by growth as of December 30, 2024 are created in the same year.
Analysts’ predictions for the sector are quite rosy, with some even comparing DeSci to DeFi 2019.
Andrey Grachev, an investment fund manager at DWF Labs, also spoke very optimistically about the trend. He wrote in X that AI agents and DeSci seem to be “the next hot narrative.”
DeSci-DAOs Are Being Sent To The Moon
According to an article by synthetic biology researcher John Cumbers, many biotech projects are being launched with DeSci because most holding companies, nonprofits and government foundations are not interested in funding risky startups with small amounts of money.
“If we want to increase the rate of innovation tenfold, these are the kinds of projects that should not be left unsupported – not in the ‘valley of death’ of NIH grants, nor in the vicious cycle of venture capital funding, where you need funds to do research and you need research already done to get funds,” Kambers wrote.
Biotech DAOs focus on supporting small projects by helping them realize breakthrough ideas. In exchange, token holders get to manage intellectual property in the form of IP-NFTs.
According to a report by analysts at Onchain Research, projects at DeSci use DAOs in five main ways:
- earmarked research funding;
- donations for purposes outside of, but contributing to, research;
- IP-NFT equity ownership;
- collective fundraising for narrowly focused projects in science;
- data lakes – collecting, organizing and selling data to accelerate research.
At the time of writing, according to DeepDAO, the top fund size is the ResearchHub Foundation DAO from the project of the same name.
The ResearchHub platform, which has been operating for more than five years, positions itself as an analog of GitHub for communication and collaboration between researchers. The project was created by Brian Armstrong, the founder of Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange.
On November 21, 2024, at the SciCon 2024 scientific conference, the team announced the launch of the ResearchHub Journal. At the presentation, the project members stated the following benefits of the new publication:
- increased frequency of scientific papers being viewed;
- immediate publication of preprints;
- rapid review – 21 days;
- paid peer review.
In December, the respected scientific journal Nature revealed that ResearchHub pays reviewers $150 in ResearchCoin (RSC) for each manuscript read.
The most active DeSci-DAO turned out to be MoonDAO, an organization literally preparing to send humans to the moon. As stated on its website, the project “accelerates humanity’s multiplanetary future” through a global network and an open platform for funding, collaboration, and competition in tasks that move closer to establishing a settlement on Earth’s natural satellite. DAO ranks first in three metrics at once: number of proposals, participants, and holders of the project’s token, MOONEY.
Maelstrom analyst Lucas Rupert compared the two leading segments of the bull cycle: the fading first wave of AI agent growth and the rise of DeSci tokens. In this regard, he mentioned one of Arthur Hayes’ investments.
“AI Agents and DeSci are trending in the current bull cycle, and now it’s the turn for DeSci to shine. AI Agents tokens have a market capitalization of over $16 billion, while DeSci is at $1 billion before Bio’s launch. This looks like a tiny amount when compared. The combined market capitalization of the first BioDAOs is less than $150 million. The first BioDAOs with low capitalization offer the most potential for growth,” the analyst concluded.
Rupert also explained that the fund chose the right moment to invest in the DeSci-segment, when “everything is still just beginning.”
The Bio Protocol platform mentioned by the researcher is designed to manage and fund research through DAOs and tokenization. The project is on the first line in terms of capitalization in the DeSci section of CoinGecko’s dashboard. The first major project from the former Binance Labs has been successfully listed on exchanges. In January 2025, the team announced the expansion of dapp to the Solana blockchain.
The Bio Protocol team aims to connect crypto users and the DeFi segment with scientists and biotech experts through the following tools:
- Bioconomy. Provides liquidity and fair pricing for biotech DAOs, making it easier for profiled projects to access funds and trade tokens transparently;
- Bio Launchpad. The platform enables DAOs to enter the market in three stages. First, community members use BIO tokens to vote on project funding, followed by BioDAO tokens from the winners. This is followed by an acceleration phase in which approved projects raise funds either through a bond sale or auction. This is how the market valuation signals further support for the startup. At the final stage, the project tokens are listed on DEX with the support of liquidity pools;
- BIO Incubator. A 16-week program to support biotech startups with funding, mentoring and technical resources. Participants will learn how to tackle the challenges of starting a biotech organization, launching a DAO, and master Web3 tools;
- BioDAO Bible. A knowledge base for those who want to grow in DeSci.
Pump Science and The First Digital Organism
The DeSci ecosystem is growing rapidly, with whole areas emerging that are increasingly far from the usual medical projects and research publishing platforms.
DeSci utilizes virtually all Web3 tools and technologies. For example, using ZKP in applications like Hippocrat, patients can receive counseling without revealing their identity.
The Origin Trail project creates a verifiable network for decentralized AI. It uses OriginTrail’s unique decentralized knowledge graph and parachain to provide AI-based solutions. The yesnoerror (YNE) protocol verifies scientific papers using language models.
Startup Rejuve.AI (RJV) is developing a smartphone app to help slow aging. Developers on the Sui blockchain introduced AI agents for DeSci – SUI Desci Agents (DESCI).
Another DeSci project, Pump Science, offers gamified help to experts studying longevity. Gamification is based on a simple model with three variables: time spent, money spent, and the quality of the research conducted. The data obtained helps to predict the impact of a future drug on the human body.
Leveraging their knowledge, users will launch tokens representing chemical compounds. They can then observe, in real-time, researchers conducting trials of these compounds on animals.
The market price of the corresponding tokens will be determined by the results of the experiments. In the first stage, once a token reaches a market capitalization of $69,000, laboratory tests will be conducted on worms, followed by flies, and so on, according to the scheme.
Two projects launched on the platform – Rifampicin (RIF) and Urolithin A (URO) – are in the top 20 by capitalization in the DeSci category on CoinGecko.
Based on the Pump Science roadmap, future plans include integrating prediction markets for research events, creating fundraising tools for platform projects, launching a marketplace for trading chemical substances, implementing AI agents, and forming a DAO.
The last project worth mentioning is Deep Worm (WORM), an autonomous digital organism residing on the blockchain. It mimics the neural architecture of the Caenorhabditis elegans worm and has 302 neurons. The combination of biological neural networks and blockchain creates a digital entity capable of autonomous operation.
Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living soil nematode, approximately 1 mm in length. C. elegans was the first multicellular organism to have its genome fully sequenced. Since then, the worm has become a useful subject for studying the mechanisms controlling movement, neural network signaling, and chemotaxis.
The protocol operates with the support of Marlin’s ZKP protocol, which ensures the integrity of computations. The team’s goal is to create a new category of autonomous digital life on the blockchain, where worm-inspired neural networks can evolve, becoming the foundation for money and contracts.
In conclusion
DeSci emerged from the idea of using blockchain technologies to promote transparency and equitable collaboration in research. It provides open data exchange, decentralized funding mechanisms, and traceable intellectual property, while addressing issues such as opacity and inefficient funding inherent in traditional academic institutions.
According to analysts at MV Global, the segment is projected to expand significantly by the end of 2025, with at least 10 projects reaching a market capitalization of over $100 million. Experts also anticipate the launch of at least fifty DeSci projects this year.
Source: https://coinpaper.com/7366/from-moon-colonies-to-blockchain-worms-inside-the-de-sci-crypto-surge