Bio Protocol Raises $6.9M to Launch AI-Native Decentralized Science Platform for Biotech Funding & Drug Discovery

Bio Protocol enables researchers and patients to launch BioAgents - autonomous AI co-scientists that generate hypotheses, fund experiments and monetize biotech discoveries outside traditional pharma.

ZUG, Switzerland, Sept. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Bio Protocol, the decentralized science (DeSci) platform building AI-native infrastructure for biotechnology, today announced it has raised $6.9 million in a funding round anchored by Maelstrom Fund, with participation from leading biotech and crypto investors. The financing fuels Bio Protocol's expansion into a full-stack platform for AI-driven decentralized science, scientific funding and drug discovery.

A Platform for AI-Driven Decentralized Science

Bio Protocol enables distributed groups of researchers, patients and crypto users to create and grow AI-driven research networks that automate scientific tasks and monetize biotech discoveries.

While AI in biology is rapidly advancing through initiatives at Google, OpenAI, and Stanford, most scientific AI tools remain siloed in traditional pharma and cut off from global collaboration. Bio integrates scientific AI with blockchain features for coordination, funding and data integrity, allowing biotech research to move faster from hypothesis to commercial application.

Paul Kohlhaas, founder and CEO of Bio Protocol: "Science today is locked in institutional black boxes, cut off from the very researchers who birth it and the communities primed to accelerate it. By unifying AI, biotech, and crypto in a decentralized platform, researchers and citizen scientists everywhere can collaborate more efficiently and back promising biotech from its earliest stages, compressing drug development from decades to months."

Arthur Hayes, founder and CIO of Maelstrom Fund: "Bio is about to be the category-defining launchpad which will fund scientific research the community finds appealing, not just academics. If it works, it's not just a launchpad - it's the birth of an AI-native research market."

BioAgents: Onchain Science Machines

BioAgents are decentralized AI agents designed to accelerate and reduce the cost of scientific development while maintaining blockchain-verified knowledge flows.

The first BioAgent, Aubrai, launched in late August 2025 in partnership with VitaDAO and leading longevity researcher Dr. Aubrey de Grey. Trained on Dr. de Grey's lab data and community insights, Aubrai has in its first weeks live:

• Generated $900,000+ in research funding.
• Minted more than 1,000 hypotheses onchain.
• Enabled immediate lab testing with agent-managed wallets & research workflows.

Bio plans to expand the BioAgent framework globally to more researchers, creating networks of agents that surface hidden connections across biology faster than legacy labs.

Key BioAgent features:

1. Continuous Funding: Each BioAgent is connected to an onchain wallet that collects fees, makes payments and redistributes value to fund wet-lab experiments and trials, enabling research to start immediately once vetted, rather than languishing in traditional funding cycles.
2. Crowdsourced Learning: BioAgents learn continuously from encrypted research vaults, as well as social and messaging platforms, while reading and writing to a global knowledge graph integrated across the Bio network.
3. Blockchain-Verified Knowledge Flow: BioAgents create an immutable trail of blockchain-verified scientific progress, ensuring credit and rewards flow back to contributors whose early insights or negative results paved the way for discoveries.
4. Knowledge Monetization: BioAgents generate fees by providing insights, compounds and services to pharma companies, consumers and other research organizations, as well as by generating market-making fees in the agent's native token.

Introducing Bio Protocol V2

Bio's funding round coincides with the launch of Bio V2, which introduces advanced onchain funding, governance and incentive structures to the network.

Key Bio V2 features:

• Ignition Sales: A launch model enabling low-cap, high-velocity fundraising for Decentralized Scientific AI Agents (BioAgents) and tokenized intellectual property (IP Tokens), lowering barriers for early supporters.
• BioXP: A loyalty and incentive system rewarding positive-sum contributions such as research inputs and marketing support, granting BioXP recipients with access to Ignition Sales.
• Staking: BIO and ecosystem tokens can be staked to earn BioXP, aligning long-term support with participatory rights in resulting IP.

Real-World Assets Advancing Rapidly

Since 2024, Bio Protocol's network has directed over $50M in research funding to scientists globally, offering an alternative path amid cuts to legacy scientific funding models worldwide.

A number of ecosystem projects are rapidly advancing toward clinical trials at a fraction of traditional biotech costs and timelines:

• VITA-FAST – longevity program progressing toward Phase 2 clinical trials in the UAE.
• VitaRNA – RNA program dosing first patients in the UAE, with expansion planned in Europe.
• Percepta (CLAW) – brain health supplement entering human studies with accelerating regulatory pathways.
• Curetopia (CURES) – rare disease program tackling 40 inherited metabolic diseases, advancing pilot studies and IP filings.

These projects demonstrate how decentralized scientific funding and coordination can bring innovations overlooked by pharma from concept to trial in months rather than years.

Strategic Funding Round

Bio's $6.9M round was anchored by Maelstrom Fund, joined by Mechanism Capital, Animoca Brands, Presto Labs and a diverse syndicate of biotech and crypto investors. Bio will use the funding to scale its launchpad and AI frameworks, while developing key features like prediction markets, onchain lending and agent-to-agent communication.

"Just as digital publishing platforms gave creators the ability to build and monetize audiences outside traditional media, Bio Protocol empowers scientists to build and monetize research outside traditional pharma structures," said Kohlhaas.

About Bio Protocol

Bio Protocol is a decentralized science (DeSci) platform supporting the launch and growth of AI-driven biotech projects. By breaking down traditional barriers and introducing decentralized scientific funding, Bio accelerates drug discovery, reduces costs and makes biotech innovation more accessible to researchers and patients worldwide.

Website: www.bio.xyz

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SOURCE BIO.XYZ