Arthur Hayes is betting that the next breakout in crypto won’t be in finance — but in medicine.

The Maelstrom Fund founder has led a raise worth almost $7 million into Bio Protocol, a decentralised science, or DeSci, platform building artificial intelligence-native tools for biotech funding and drug discovery.

“Bio is about to be the category-defining launchpad which will fund scientific research the community finds appealing, not just academics,” Hayes said in comments shared with DL News . “If it works, it’s not just a launchpad — it’s the birth of an AI-native research market.”

Maelstrom anchored the raise. Mechanism Capital, Animoca Brands, and Atria Ventures also joined the raise alongside several biotech and crypto investors, Bio Protocol said.

The funding round marks Hayes’ latest support of the $896 million DeSci sector. In January, he wrote a blog encouraging “risk-takers” to support DeSci projects.

“We love undervalued dogshit,” the Maelstrom chief investment officer wrote in January, saying that the fund had already bought into tokens like VITA and that of Bio Protocol.

The new raise includes new funding from Hayes’ firm, Bio Protocol told DL News .

Bio Protocol said it will use the cash injection to strengthen its engineering, AI and regulatory muscles “to bring AI-driven decentralised science onchain.”

Its stated goal, much like the rest of the DeSci movement, is to leverage blockchain technology to create a more open, cheaper and transparent way of doing research.

“Science today is locked in institutional black boxes,” CEO Paul Kohlhaas said in comments shared with DL News . “By unifying AI, biotech, and crypto in a decentralised platform, we can compress drug development from decades to months.”

The platform lets researchers and patients deploy BioAgents — autonomous AI “co-scientists” that generate hypotheses, manage wallets, and commercialise discoveries.

The first agent, Aubrai, launched with VitaDAO and biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey in August. So far, it has raised $900,000, minted 1,000 onchain hypotheses, and triggered live lab tests, according to Bio Protocol.

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at [email protected] .