Crypto Billionaire Brock Pierce Joins Psychedelic Venture Fund, Says 'Potential Reward Is Immeasurable'
Benzinga was the first to report that Brock Pierce, the crypto billionaire, economist and philanthropist serving as chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, has joined Jeremy Gardner’s psychedelics-focused venture fund Mystic Ventures as a general partner.
Pierce, the co-founder of EOS Alliance, Block.one, Blockchain Capital, Tether USDT/USD
and Mastercoin, has been a long-time supporter of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies -aka MAPS. He is also a pre-IPO investor in Germany-based clinical-stage psychedelics company atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ATAI) and an investor in Filament Health (OTC:FLHLF), a Canada-based clinical-stage natural psychedelic development company. In other words, Pierce is no newbie to the psychedelics space.
In an exclusive interview, Pierce told Benzinga: “The industry is barely in its infancy. However, the potential reward to humanity, mental health, and those who get in on the ground floor, is immeasurable.”
Jeremy Gardner, the managing partner and founder of AngelList Ventures fund Mystic Ventures, also stems from the crypto world. He is the founder of the Blockchain Education Network, and co-founder of Augur, the world’s first Utility Token and first ICO on Ethereum.
The fund’s investments range from AI-powered drug discovery to the development of new treatments, as well as far-ranging startups such as a breathwork app and a biofeedback-powered haptic sound startup.
“The investment opportunity in terms of growth potential may be higher than in any other emerging market,” Pierce told Benzinga. “We've already identified the leaders in the space who are paving the way in this noble fight for mental health and expanding human consciousness,” he concluded.
Read the full interview HERE.
Colorado Voters Decide If Psychedelics Go Legal This Tuesday. Ballot Measure & Public Comments
Tuesday's midterms will give Americans the chance to vote on members of the House of Representatives, Senate and in 36 states, for Governors. In Colorado, voters will decide whether to legalize psychedelics.
If passed, Proposition 122 -the Natural Medicine Health Act Initiative- would legalize adult possession, personal use and gifting of a list of psychedelics including psilocybin and psilocin mushrooms, mescaline (not derived from peyote), ibogaine and DMT.
The state’s department of regulatory agencies would help establish healing centers offering a psilocybin-assisted therapy program under the guidance of a trained facilitator for adults suffering from mental health conditions such as depression and PTSD, without the need for a physician’s recommendation.
Proposition 122 allows regulators to add DMT, ibogaine and mescaline to the list of medicines to be offered at healing centers as of June 1st, 2026.
Psilocybin healing centers would open after a newly-formed committee decides how the system should be implemented including rules and regulations after which psychedelics-assisted treatments would be provided. This regulatory process will take place until September 2024, so psilocybin centers will most likely not be available until 2025.
Another relevant aspect of the regulation entails that those previously convicted and who have served their time will have the opportunity to ask the court to have their records sealed. If corresponding DAs do not object, cases would be automatically sealed.
If the measure passes, Colorado would join Oregon where via Measure 109 the state legalized psilocybin therapy and decriminalized the personal use of other substances such as ibogaine and DMT.
Zappy Calls To The Pioneers On The Psychedelics Space To Support Legalization
Dear Psychedelic Medicine Entrepreneur.
Congratulations on being a pioneer at this pivotal time for our industry. Thanks to the growing body of research by the world’s top medical institutions, we now have confirmation that psychedelics hold unparalleled potential to help end the suicide, addiction, and depression epidemics, which are destroying more lives than ever before.
We stand at the precipice of a radical shift in medicine, in which compounds that have been shelved and demonized for decades are finally being recognized for their monumental therapeutic promise. Read the complete letter HERE.
The Milestone Round
Each week, we learn about new clinical trials, the creation of psychedelic-based compounds and novel potential treatments for those suffering from mental and physical health conditions.
Important news from last week includes the major psychedelics event Wonderland and its awards delivery to the top companies and most influential people in the space, the $60M Series A funding devoted to the launch of a psychedelics startup, and the beginning of a pilot program for the first in-clinic application of VR paired with psychedelic-assisted therapy.
In terms of investment expertise, Palo Santo VC fund’s insight on the industry’s future is available in this exclusive four-part series. For the exploration of the psychedelics renaissance, a podcast series was relaunched.
In market activity, a Canadian company completed the delivery of its line of legal mushroom-derived health supplements to clients across the US, while another is now offering supplement products composed of a blend of vitamins, anti-inflammatories and cognitive stimulating ingredients in adaptogen mushrooms to promote brain growth and enhance psychedelic therapy.
In the US, Oregon’s Jackson County seems to have become a battlefield for the implementation of the psilocybin service centers.
Meanwhile, Health Canada has granted two major approvals: one allows for the launch of the first take-home psilocybin clinical trial, and the other enables Canadian university researchers to further advance psilocybin mushroom studies through self-cultivation.
Being the sole legal psychedelic-assisted therapy to date, ketamine is extensively offered for a wide range of mental health indications through new treatment financing options and extensive US clinical networks.
As for other psychedelics, clinical studies of LSD have recently shown that it could boost human neural plasticity and enhance cognition at a single dose, and that it is responsible for the increase in energy, wellness, happiness, creativity and connectedness -suggesting a potential treatment of patients with depression- at microdose levels.
Clinical-stage trials involving DMT this week include a Phase 2 study’s positive results on a liquid inhaled formulation of the psychedelic for Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD), the recently-approved and ready-to-begin Phase 1 study on a deuterated form of DMT.
For those interested in the evolution of psychedelics, long-standing research on ancient Nazca culture in Peru discovered that at least some of their sacrificial ceremonies involved the active use of psychedelics.
Psychedelics EFTs Weekly Performance
This is how the sector’s major EFTs performed in the week spanning October 31 to November 4.
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AdvisorShares Psychedelics PSIL opened Monday, Oct. 31 at $2.40, slightly higher than former week’s opening at $2.35 though lower when compared to Monday 17’s $2.57 and Monday 10’s $2.80. Weekly movements were not significant, price oscillating between highest $2.47 -Tuesday, Nov. 1- and lowest $2.38, the price to which it closed on Friday 4.
The Elemental Advisors PSYK EFT PSYK opened Monday, Oct. 31 at $17.62, a considerable high from prior Monday 24’s opening at $16.97 and also higher than Monday 17’s $17.57 though not yet achieving Monday 10’s $18.40. Nonetheless, the number consistently fell throughout the week and finally closed at $17.18 on Friday, Nov. 4. For this EFT, the yearly price range is between $23.32 and $16.71.
