Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research

Memecoins generate a lot of financial activity without creating much real-world impact.
But what if you could harness the power of memecoin degeneracy to solve the biggest problems humanity has ever faced: aging and death?

That’s the essential idea behind a raft of anti-aging crypto projects, including VitaDAO, CryoDAO, BiohackerDAO and others. But it’s Pump.science that takes the idea to its logical extreme.

The fledgling platform has just started taking orders for its first-ever anti-aging or longevity supplement called Urolithin A. The compound is believed to increase mitophagy, which is the body’s clean-up and replacement system for the mitochondria that power your cells.

What’s unusual is that research into its effects on longevity was funded by crypto degens buying up a related token. The platform’s community decides what compounds to research and funds the experiments by buying or trading the token (fees are redirected to research) and in certain cases, getting a pro-rata share of any resulting intellectual property.

Urolithin A: A crypto-funded anti-aging supplement

Tokenholders were able to tune into livestreamed experiments that showed the molecule increased the lifespans of worms by 6.35% and flies by 20.13%. Testing has now moved on to mice, and Magazine watches a live feed of mice running on a rotating bar until one by one, they slowly fall off. The results so far have been mixed, with one mouse dying for unrelated reasons, another seeing an improvement in endurance, while the remaining mouse did not. Science is hard.

When tokenholders receive their three-month supply in late May, they can help crowdsource the research on humans by tracking anti-aging biomarkers such as VO2 Max and heart rate variability using an Apple Watch or Garmin.

Tokenized anti-aging intellectual property

Co-founder of Pump.science Benji Leibowitz says the site is essentially a gamified version of the biotech industry’s high throughput screening methods

“I think we’re basically like taking the same sort of speculative gem hunting experience that you find in memecoins and applying it to high throughput screening, which, at the end of the day, is all kind of pulling the slot machine,” he says.

The platform tested the anti-aging memecoin concept by launching Rifampicin (Rif) and Urolithin A (URO) on Pump.fun last year.

As on Pump.fun, tokens associated with compounds are released on a bonding curve on Pump.science, and those that generate enough interest graduate to the Meteora DEX, where trading fees also go toward funding research. So far, around 45,000 tokenholders have generated around $2.37 billion in volume and 220 SOL in fees. A legal contract gives tokenholders a share of the IP.

Also read: Crypto fans are obsessed with longevity and biohacking. Here’s why

“You could say, ‘You’re using memecoin degeneracy to fuel longevity,’ but it’s more like we’re Trojan-horsing genuine, real-world rights into something that looks like a memecoin, but in reality… they’re actually tokens with real-world legal rights.”

This sounds great in theory, but Urolithin A is a naturally occurring substance that can’t be patented — although the experimental data and methods of use can be. Given it has a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status, it also means platform users who want to buy it and help test it out, can do so now without having to wait years for approval from the Food and Drug Administration. It’s a similar story with another compound being tested called Artemisinin, a plant-based malaria treatment that is also a potent antioxidant and may increase lifespan.

“Should people be taking it as a supplement?” asks Leibowitz. “We’re trying to answer that by saying, ‘Does it extend life in all these animals that we test on?’”

“Our goal is to generate valuable IP, but more importantly, products, for every token that’s launched.”

Outside organizations like VitaDAO and the Methuselah Foundation are also using Pump.science to research and test their own experimental compounds.

Challenges of merging crypto and anti-aging in DeSci

Max Unfried, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Center for Healthy Longevity, says that crypto money can make a big difference in the underfunded anti-aging sector, where even research that results in a minor breakthrough can run out of funding, and has to hope a private business will step in and develop the product further.

“And that’s not always happening, especially with high risk, high impact sci-fi technologies, which may take a long time and a lot of resources to really commercialize, so that there are many gaps, I would say that can be filled by this…