Binance Labs ventures into DeSci with BIO Protocol investment
Summary
Binance Labs, the cryptocurrency exchanges venture capital arm, has made its first investment in decentralized science (DeSci) with an investment in BIO Protocol, an accelerator that seeks to transform the financing and commercialization of health sciences.BIO Protocol supports a network of Biotech Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (BioDAOs) that create communities to fund, develop and co-own new drugs and therapeutics. The BioDAOs address gaps in traditional funding in areas such as rare diseases, longevity research, and emerging health challenges, according to Binance Labs.Binance Labs investment, which was not disclosed, will expand the network by providing seed funding for new projects and strengthening the network that provides them with community and tokenomics support. For example, Binance Labs supports Pluto Studio, which launched the popular tap-to-earn Telegram mini-app Catizen.BIO Protocol has a network of eight BioDAOs, which reached a market cap of $200 million in November 2023. BIO Protocol founder Paul Kohlhaas introduced intellectual property non-fungible tokens (IP-NFTs) as the co-founder of the Molecule platform. It received $4.1 million in funding from pharmaceutical company Pfizer in February 2023 and funded the launch of Matrix Biosciences in October of that year.BioDAO HairDAO became the first DAO to file a scientific patent in December.The protocols next cohort will include projects dedicated to finding a cure for Long COVID and rare diseases, and developing quantum microscopes to observe quantum biological phenomena, according to information provided to Cointelegraph by Binance Labs.Magazine: Anti-aging tycoon Bryan Johnson almost devoted his life to crypto