Does the MEME Token really have fundamentals? How far can decentralization science go?

In the past two weeks, Decentralization Science (DeSci) has become one of the hottest tracks in the crypto market. Since a trading platform announced investment in BIO Protocol on November 8, this once-silent concept has resurfaced, with hot money flooding in, leading to astonishing price increases for multiple related Tokens and giving rise to a new potential MEME track.

Decentralization Science, abbreviated as DeSci, refers to the establishment of public infrastructure through Web3 technology to achieve open and fair funding, storage, and dissemination of scientific knowledge. It encourages scientists to openly share research findings and gain recognition, while allowing anyone to easily access and contribute to research outcomes. In short, DeSci aims to leverage blockchain technology to address research-related issues, covering multiple aspects such as fundraising, knowledge sharing, peer review, and intellectual property.

From the current performance in the field, DeSci is mainly focused on fundraising. Most projects finance themselves through tokenization to support research and development, while advocating for the on-chain storage of research results to enhance transparency and protect intellectual property. Currently, the core function of DeSci is to open new fundraising channels for scientific research that requires long-term investment. By linking the seemingly unrelated fields of cryptocurrency and scientific research, tokenization is given more practical significance, making it highly regarded by the market as one of the cases for the practical use of MEME.

The root of this wave of DeSci is the celebrity effect. On November 8, a trading platform completed strategic financing for BIO Protocol, bringing this "on-chain science version of Y Combinator" into the spotlight. Subsequently, at the DeSci Day event held in Bangkok, two well-known figures in the industry discussed DeSci together, further pushing this concept to the forefront.

The crypto circle has quickly stirred up a DeSci craze, and Pump.Science has become an instant hit, with multiple projects yielding astonishing profits, allowing this track to completely break out. Industry insiders even believe, "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 from it, which is that it has enormous potential." As a result, even in the case of a significant market correction, the DeSci sector is still rising against the trend.

Although the vision of DeSci is promising and undoubtedly valuable in opening new funding channels for scientific research, the hype component is clearly greater than the actual utility at present. Essentially, there is a significant divergence between the long-term nature of scientific research and the short-term profit-seeking nature of the MEME field. It seems somewhat unrealistic to use the purely speculative MEME track to neutralize the zero speculation of the research field.

Scientific research is subject to great uncertainty; for example, drug development often takes decades, and if the direction goes wrong, it results in total failure. It has characteristics such as high investment and high risk, requiring sustainable long-term investment. This is also why research funding usually adopts a model led by the government with leading enterprises, combining state capital with social capital to hedge risks and maintain competitiveness. However, in the crypto market, attention is the core; trends are difficult to sustain. Currently, the hot money surrounding DeSci is mainly concentrated on the meme coin issuance platforms for scientific research projects, indicating the market's focus on the profit-making effect.

In fact, conceptually speaking, DeSci has a bit of a "new wine in an old bottle" meaning. As early as July 2021, VitaDAO, initiated by well-known figures in the industry, was one of the earliest and most representative DeSci projects, but the development of this project has not been as grand as its concept.

VitaDAO is a community-owned project dedicated to funding early longevity research, aiming to drive scientific innovation through the collective power of the community, researching and supporting projects aimed at extending human lifespan and preventing age-related diseases. In short, VitaDAO is a DAO community focused on longevity research.

Previously, VitaDAO briefly sparked discussions due to a strategic investment from a traditional pharmaceutical company, but soon fell silent. Currently, VitaDAO is expanding its layout, having deployed $4.2 million in funding to support 24 projects, and has also engaged in research collaboration with renowned universities. However, relative to its activities, the actual results appear quite limited. Since 2021, until the recent Devcon this year, the project initiators finally showcased VitaDAO's first product, VD001.

On the other hand, although the on-chain of scientific research results will enhance transparency and intellectual property protection, and is beneficial for scientific dissemination, it is almost a structural disruption in relatively closed scientific research fields. In today's research system, most research teams maintain a high level of confidentiality regarding research results and experimental data during the research process to prevent unauthorized individuals from stealing, utilizing, or leaking research outcomes, especially when deep interests are involved, confidentiality becomes even more crucial. With the strong entry of decentralization, the security of data is naturally difficult to guarantee.

Under the influence of the two factors mentioned above, it can be anticipated that, apart from the superficial applications in research content, review fairness, and data tokenization, only projects with extremely high implementation difficulty, long duration, and high collaboration will align with the crypto model. From this round of enthusiasm, most DeSci projects have targeted a core issue of common concern for all humanity—longevity, which has also led the market to humorously refer to DeSci as the elixir of life on the blockchain.

Eternal life is ultimately just a beautiful vision, and the market's interest in DeSci is only for the liquidity it brings. Although the BIO Genesis community fundraising initiative launched by BIOProtocol raised 33 million USD, and the DeSci sector has surged in the past two weeks, there has been limited action in the primary market, with large institutions not yet participating. From the perspective of leading projects, the secondary market performance has also been mediocre, with the market capitalization of major tokens ranging between 120 million and 200 million USD, which is far from the 1 billion USD market capitalization of leading projects in other sectors.

However, if we look at it from a long-term perspective, DeSci is relatively good within the MEME space. Compared to other MEMEs, DeSci has a stronger narrative. While the celebrity effect is difficult to sustain, there exists a fundamental effect due to the support of actual research projects; any innovation in research and product development will strengthen the narrative. The biomedical sector is generally open to fundraising, and its emerging nature makes it more likely to connect with the crypto space. Furthermore, DeSci has the potential for a breakout effect; the current celebrity effect within this sector is still concentrated in the crypto space, and celebrities from traditional medicine and research have not yet entered, nor have large institutions emerged, which also provides direction for future narratives.

From a macro market perspective, whether it's zoos or artists, AI-driven or research-validated, MEME has become the main carrier of market funds. However, the previous bearers of this round of wealth effect were still altcoins. Looking solely at the altcoin market, Bitcoin rose from $10,000 to the edge of $100,000, while the follow-up effect of Ethereum significantly decreased, and the performance of altcoins mostly declined, with only a few of the top ten crypto assets showing an increase. The explosive growth of altcoins that used to occur seems difficult to replicate.

At its core, the change in capital flow is key. In traditional bull market transmission, the common path is from high stability assets gradually sinking and overflowing to low stability assets, activating high yield preferences from low yield sources, namely mainstream coins - altcoins - MEME coins - other sectors. However, this year, this path is not as it was in the past. Currently, with the entry of institutions and saturation of project numbers, external large-scale new liquidity will only flow into the Bitcoin ecosystem. The public chain ecosystem lacks strong applications emerging, and altcoins are mired in a supply-demand structure crisis, with Bitcoin becoming the siphon of ecological funds, and funds from other sectors being siphoned off as well. Only the fast in-and-out, wealth effect concentrated MEME stands out, turning the altcoin season into a MEME season.

A typical case is that a certain MEME Token issuance platform has already become the biggest winner of the bull market. According to data, as of November 24, the platform has accumulated revenue of nearly $230 million, with a total of approximately 3.74 million Tokens deployed.

Of course, the two are not a substitution effect; the rise of MEME does not mean the collapse of altcoins. Under relaxed regulations and sector rotation, altcoins still have the potential to make a comeback against the odds. However, the enhancement of MEME's market position undoubtedly reflects a structural change in the market. In fact, whether it's live call trading, short video marketing, or AI-driven autonomy, with the entry of Generation Z and the rapid evolution of new technologies, the crypto market is undergoing profound changes in narrative logic, communication modes, and operational methods.

Traditional copycat projects find it difficult to sustain by maintaining narratives around token releases for long-term profit, and the market is no longer willing to pay for VC tokens. Instead, it is shifting 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 with projects seems more competitive than a single project; while copycats are monopolizing, MEME is relatively fair. MEME lacks long-term viability, whereas projects provide fundamentals, making the two highly compatible. This may also be one of the reasons for the rise of concepts like AIMEME and Desci at present.

However, the formation of consensus has a high degree of randomness, and MEME gold mines are extremely rare. According to data, as of November 21, a certain MEME Token issuance platform has issued a total of 3.59 million tokens, a quantity that far exceeds the total token issuance in the cryptocurrency world over the past decade. Among them, the number of tokens for graduation (reaching the upper limit on a certain DEX) is 50,389, accounting for about 1.4%. The number of tokens with a market value exceeding 100 million USD is only 32, with less than one ten-thousandth of the MEME market value able to exceed 10 million USD.

In the long term, finding a consensus balance between attention and longevity will become an important issue for the development of MEME. However, for individuals, surviving and not going to zero is the premise of everything.