Research by American biologists, which has been ongoing for 60 years, was threatened with closure due to cuts in government funding. To raise funds, the scientists created an OnlyFans account named OnlyMarms (marms, short for marmots) in June.
Through this channel, they managed to raise only $6,000, but an unknown individual created the OnlyMarms memecoin on the Solana network and donated all trading fees from the token to the biologists' research. As a result, the project raised $100,000, extending its operations by another year.
“I am completely amazed that this internet culture, which I know almost nothing about, raised so much money. It is both surprising and shocking,” said one of the project leaders, Julien Marten.
He explained that he initially thought it was a scam. Marten also acknowledged that while funds from OnlyFans and the memecoin will allow the project to continue studying marmots for now, this is not an adequate replacement for standard government funding.
“Of course, we were lucky, and we might get even luckier if the memecoin performs even better, but I understand that this is not for everyone. It worked for us because we were the first,” he said.
