Key Takeaways:
There is a new narrative in town – decentralized science or DeSci. The trend can be traced back to the launch of DeSci meme coins, RIF and URO, on Pump.Science in September. Prices hit the roof after Binance entered the scene in early November, but DeSci tokens have been on a downward spiral ever since.Now and then a new narrative is born in the crypto world, attracting billions of dollars in old and new money rotating from other sub-sectors of the industry and elsewhere. One such narrative is decentralized science or DeSci.
The X social-media network has been abuzz in recent weeks after large cryptocurrency holders, known as “whales,” started to accumulate DeSci tokens, sparking speculation this might be the next big trend in crypto.
The trend can be traced back to the inconspicuous launch of the first two DeSci meme coins, Rifampicin (RIF) and Urolithin A (URO), on Pump.Science in September. Both assets struggled to break $500,000 market cap.
But the game changed after Binance announced on Nov. 8 that it invested an undisclosed amount in DeSci startup BIO Protocol, which raised about $33 million in capital within a short period of time.
BIO Protocol owns Pump.Science via Molecule DAO, which in September launched the meme coin issuance platform targeting decentralized science projects.
Binance, the biggest crypto exchange by trading volume, had already published a primer on decentralized science eight months earlier. It began to reshare the write-up on its socials in recent days as the hype reached fever-pitch.
And when former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted that he took part in a DeSci entrepreneur meeting with backing from Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, DeSci token prices hit the roof, briefly eclipsing AI meme coins.
Artificial intelligence (AI)–based tokens like GOAT, Fartcoin, and ACT have been the hottest cryptocurrency trend lately.
DeSci Tokens Surge
URO, a meme coin linked to the Urolithin A compound, which helps body cells to function better, more than tripled in value to reach an all-time high of $0.13 on Nov. 19. The token’s market cap surged to over $133 million.
As of writing, however, Solana-based URO has lost most of those gains and is down 34% on the day to $0.0367, according to CoinGecko. Its total market value has whittled down to $37 million, with about 12,700 holders.
RIF, which together with URO is the only officially certified DeSci token by Pump.Science, soared more than 130% to a record high of $0.23 on Nov. 18, with its total market capitalization rising similarly to $237 million.
RIF refers to the antibiotic “Rifampicin,” which primarily inhibits bacterial RNA synthesis and exhibits a strong bactericidal effect. It is effective in treating various diseases, including tuberculosis, leprosy, and trachoma.
The token has been on a downward spiral over the past week. At the time of going to press, RIF has slumped 28% to $0.087 in 24 hours. It tanked 42% week-on-week. Still, 20,000 wallet addresses are holding the token.
It is not just RIF and URO that saw major gains in DeSci. By the time Arthur Hayes tweeted about Deep Worm’s WORM token heading for a $1 billion market cap, the coin had already reached a peak of $0.09, soaring 230% in one day. Like most DeSci tokens, WORM has retraced to $0.03, losing $62 million of its market value in just one week.
Hayes is a crypto billionaire who has a lot of influence in the industry. He co-founded BitMEX crypto exchange and is the current chief investment officer of Maelstromfund, a crypto-focused family office fund.
As a sub-sector, the total market value of DeSci averages just $1.2 billion, with a 24-hour trading volume of $300 million as of this writing.
The five most valued DeSci projects are OriginTrail (TRAC), VitaDAO (VITA), HairDAO (HAIR), RIF, and Hippocrat (HPO), according to Dropstab.
By comparison, the total market cap of AI-based meme coins dropped 13% to $2.9 billion on Tuesday, with a daily trading volume of $1 billion.
GOAT, Turbo, ACT, ZereBRO, and Fartcoin are the most valuable AI coins.
What Is Decentralized Science?
Alexandr Kerya, vice president of product management at cryptocurrency exchange CEX.io, said DeSci uses “blockchain and web3 technologies to reimagine how scientific research is conducted, funded, and shared.”
Speaking to Cryptonews, Kerya said that traditional scientific research systems, which tend to be centralized, can lead to “disproportionate control by a few publishers and institutions.”
Often, this results in “biased funding, paywalled publications, and sluggish adoption of new discoveries.”
He explained that DeSci can solve such issues by “promoting transparency, accessibility, decentralized funding, and open peer review. “
Physicist and software architect Mack Stachowiak described decentralized science’s “real goal” as one “to fund real research.”
That means “to take science ideas and turn them into working products, services, [and] intellectual property that will help progress humankind.”
Stachowiak is the cofounder of AxonDAO, a startup that builds and funds DeSci projects with biometric AI. The entity works with 50 scientists and has built over 10 projects, including one called CureOS, which aims to create a universal health profile for users to control their “health journey.”
Stachowiak told Cryptonews:
“The main actor [in DeSci] is a researcher, scientist with an idea and plan how to make it real, where at the end of this research he will be the main owner of this way of creating a solution. The other side of the equation is the community. People who are interested in such research, passionate about it, who want to buy governance tokens of such a project and later on convert those tokens to ownership in a particular research project.”
According to Stachowiak, the DeSci approach can be implemented in any industry, including metallurgy, agriculture, fishing, healthcare, and others.
“We’ve proven its effectiveness, and the research we do brings hundreds of participants already,” he added.
Could This Be Another Crypto Fad?
“DeSci is more than a passing trend,” Daniela Herrmann, the cofounder of decentralized quantum computing network Dynex, told Cryptonews. Her sentiments were shared by three other DeSci experts we spoke to.
Herrmann said the core idea behind DeSci – using decentralized tools to advance science – has “lasting value,” even with the speculation around related meme coins. She added:
“It [DeSci] complements traditional systems by enabling collaboration, funding research and solving real-world problems. Its strength is in empowering researchers and communities, making it a vital part of the future of science.”
Kerya, the CEX.io executive, fears that focusing on Pump.Science meme coins could be bad for decentralized science.
He said while meme coins have the star power to attract retail investors, the approach risks putting speculative activity first over substantive research.
“DeSci will thrive only if its projects achieve significant discoveries and gain recognition from the broader scientific community as a viable approach to advancing research,” Kerya tells Cryptonews.
“Attracting participants who might lack genuine interest in the research’s core objectives could ultimately undermine the credibility and impact of the scientific work being conducted.”
Decentralized science projects currently operate in an environment with a number of legal gray areas, especially regarding intellectual property and research verification, experts say.
Kerya said in the absence of established regulatory frameworks, “a lot of questions would remain about the quality/credibility of these researches, and their implementation in the real world.”
His worries were dismissed by Stachowiak, the AxonDAO cofounder and physicist. He said everything about DeSci is the same as traditional scientific methods apart from the way funds are raised and in ownership of the research.
Like academic research, DeSci also has IRB boards, aligns with quality systems, and researches are presented as scientific publications, Stachowiak explained.
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