PsyDAO's first batch of PSY tokens has now been completely sold.

The sale netted the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) about $2 million to deploy towards its mission of progressing psychedelic science and art.

What Happened

The token sale started on Bicycle Day, anniversary of a great psychedelic science achievement.

This weekend, the DAO sold out its initial mint of 20% of all the PSY tokens. In total, the sale brought in 661 ETH. That much ETH is worth, as of this writing, about $2 million.

This new pile of ETH means that the DAO has new opportunities to work on research, provide grants, and develop our intellectual property strategy and portfolio.

(Contribute to PsyDAO on our Discord.)

What Are People Buying

Those who buy PSY tokens (i.e., $PSY holders), become participants in our ecosystem, as well as active stakeholders in our DAO's governance. They will have the right to vote on proposals that determine how funds are allocated, which research projects are pursued, and ultimately how the DAO evolves.

Their voting power is nested within the votes of holders of PSYC—a soul-bound token that grants more governance rights. Read more about PsyDAO’s two-token governance system based on Nobel prize winning economics.

(What's the difference between PSYC and PSY? Read our blog post.)

Riding a Bio Wave

PsyDAO sold out its tokens in the midst of a wider rush of enthusiasm for decentralized science.

A key factor was the announcement that Binance Labs, a leading venture capital firm investing in early-stage Web3 projects, was investing in the BIO Protocol. BIO, like PsyDAO, enables decentralized funding and ownership of scientific projects. BIO seeks to address key challenges in traditional research funding by focusing on areas like rare diseases, longevity, cryopreservation, and mental health treatments.

The DeSci excitement was further stoked at the DevCon Ethereum conference in Thailand. At a DeSci meetup there, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Binance founder CZ were bullish on the DeSci future. 99 Bitcoins quoted CZ as saying he hoped he'd see “1,000 DeSci projects next year.” Vitalik and CZ's excitement seems to have gone viral, which sparked more interest in DeSci coins across the Etherum ecosystem, and leading to the end of PSY's sale.

Watch our intro video:

Beating Psychedelic Headwinds

The timing in the psychedelic world is notable. For the past few months, traditional psychedelic research initiatives and companies have been faltering.

One key reason was the denial by America's FDA of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD this summer. Psychedelic science companies have cut their staffs and lowered expectations, and as these companies and nonprofits face difficulties, psychedelic stock values have plummeted, optimism has waned, and state-level initiatives are seeing serious defeats.

Though most watchers expect psychedelic research to recover, most are slow-moving and dependent on grant funding or top-heavy institutional investors. Government investment in psychedelics is scarce.

PSY's sale, on the other hand, may suggest that a more democratic, transparent, and collaborative research landscape can earn the interest of token buyers — everyday stoned apes.

The successful fundraising for our DAO suggests growing interest in decentralized models for scientific advancement. We are hopeful that this innovative approach will lead to groundbreaking discoveries in the field of psychedelic science, ultimately benefiting humanity's collective well-being.

Decentralizing Science through IP-NFTs

One basis of our DAO is the IP-NFT. That is: intellectual property around psychedelics that can be bought or sold as a non-fungible token. The same way you'd buy or sell a bored ape yacht club NFT, you can buy or sell intellectual property generated by PsyDAO-funded projects.

Our first token is BeeARD. BeeARD is a project that uses an AI agent to scour the landscape of psychedelic science articles for potential intellectual property to invest in.

PsyDAO follows the lead of other decentralized psychedelic DAOs such as VitaDAO and CryoDAO, each targeting areas of science with huge potential—expanding and preserving life.

In VitaDAO, for example, holders of their tokens vote on the use of pooled funds to support longevity research proposals. A recent VitaDAO vote affirmed the deployment of funds into a project on preventing eyesight degeneration, for instance. In exchange, VitaDAO will retain partial ownership of the resulting intellectual property in the form of tokens, and holders of Vita tokens will own part of that intellectual property. VitaDAO has deployed more than $4 million in funding for longevity research, and just spun out its first company.

Psychedelic Science Finds New Paths

We know that the field of psychedelic science has immense potential to unlock breakthroughs in mental health treatment, addiction recovery, and personal well-being. And we know that traditional research funding models are often sluggish, filled with red tape, and constrained by vested interests.

Ways to Contribute

If you share our vision for a more democratic and collaborative future for psychedelic science, we want to hear from you. Take a microdose —of whatever is legal in your jurisdiction—and contribute:

• Learn more about our DAO and its governance structure by visiting our website and reading our blog.

• Become a token holder by buying Psy here.

• Join our Discord to drop memes or buy our merch (coming soon).

• Follow us on Twitter to spread the word.

[Cover image: A Kene tapestry. These woven textiles are an integral part of the Shipibo-Conibo culture. This particular textile is connected to one of PsyDAO’s PSYC soul-bound NFTs. As you can see in the PSYC NFT, this textile was woven by Elena Vargas Guerra, a member of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe. PsyDAO partners with a Shipibo nonprofit to ensure revenues from the textiles flow back to the Amazon.]