Mad Scientists3 collectionsMad Scientists is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection and associated decentralised finance ecosystem launched in early 2024 on Osmosis, a decentralised exchange and application-specific blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem. Described by Osmosis as the first NFT collection to launch on that chain, the project is known chiefly for its unconventional distribution model, in which a fungible token, $LAB, was distributed through a time-based "stream" auction and must be burned to reveal an NFT. The project operates under the slogan "everything is an experiment", and has since expanded into liquid staking, validator operation, on-chain games and community programmes.
Background and launch
Mad Scientists launched during the first quarter of 2024, a period in which Osmosis recorded substantial growth in trading volume and daily active addresses. Messari's quarterly review of the chain listed the arrival of Mad Scientists among the notable developments of that quarter.
The project positions itself within "NFTfi" — the intersection of NFTs and decentralised finance — rather than as a purely collectible or profile-picture project, although it also functions as the latter.
Distribution model
Rather than conducting a conventional mint with an allowlist, Mad Scientists distributed a fungible token, $LAB, through StreamSwap, an Osmosis-based protocol for time-based token swaps. Participants deposited OSMO into a stream pool over a window of approximately 53 hours (52.91 hours), after which the deposited OSMO was converted into $LAB over a further hour. The project describes the event as a fair launch conducted without allowlists, bot mitigation requirements or lock-ups.
The stream was, at the time, the largest conducted on StreamSwap, collecting approximately 2.41 million OSMO and establishing an implied $LAB price of roughly US$42.
$LAB has a fixed supply of 100,000 tokens, allocated as follows:
Allocation | Share |
|---|---|
StreamSwap pool | 75% |
Rekt Gang community | 9% |
BackBone Labs community | 9% |
Builders, content creators and infrastructure providers | 4.5% |
Liquidity pool | 2.5% |
Burning 10 $LAB reveals one Mad Scientists NFT, giving a maximum collection size of 10,000. Because revealing is optional and open-ended, holders may instead retain or trade $LAB as a fungible proxy for an unrevealed NFT. This has the effect that the number of revealed NFTs in circulation is lower than the nominal 10,000 cap; aggregator listings have recorded a circulating supply of approximately 7,000. Reveals are processed through the Gateway platform.
$LAB trades on Osmosis and is also listed on Coinhall and TFM.
Ecosystem
Liquid staking and validator
Mad Scientists operates a liquid staking platform built with BackBone Labs, which issues bOSMO. The Osmosis community pool approved a grant of 625,000 OSMO to seed and sustain the platform, which the project states has been accruing revenue from performance fees since 19 March 2024. The project also runs an Osmosis validator, described by Osmosis as the first NFT-project validator on the chain.
Staking and governance
In October 2024, NFT staking went live natively on Osmosis through DAO DAO. Holders staking two or more Mad Scientists NFTs accrue rewards, distributed variously as bOSMO and $LAB, with a three-day unbonding period. Staking snapshots are also used to determine eligibility for other community benefits.
Cross-chain presence
Although native to Osmosis, the collection is bridged to Stargaze — the principal NFT marketplace in the Cosmos ecosystem — using the ICS-721 interchain NFT standard implemented by Ark Protocol. Osmosis has described Mad Scientists as the most-bridged ICS-721 collection. Secondary trading data reported by third-party aggregators generally derives from the Stargaze-side contract.
Applications and community programmes
The project maintains several applications and initiatives:
MemeLab — a customisation tool offering more than fifteen ways to alter a Mad Scientists profile picture.
Mad Gacha — an on-chain gacha machine in which a Scientist is loaded and a mode selected before each pull.
Mad University — a gamified incubator rewarding research and content creation about the Cosmos and Osmosis ecosystems; the project reports having distributed over US$30,000 and raffling more than US$2,000 monthly.
Science Clubs — community-formed subgroups within the holder base.
Hackathons — periodic development competitions.
The 1/1 Five
Separately from the main collection, the project has released The 1/1 Five (also branded COSMIC), a set of five individually hand-crafted one-of-one Mad Scientists themed around the Cosmos ecosystem. These are held in a distinct contract from the main collection.
Market data
The collection carries a creator royalty of 3.14%, a reference to the mathematical constant pi.
An aggregator listing on cosmos.zone recorded a floor price of 21 ATOM (approximately US$32), roughly 4,900 owners across a circulating supply of about 7,000 tokens (approximately 70% held uniquely), 167 tokens listed and 7,422 cumulative sales. Reported trading volume was thin, with 31 sales totalling approximately US$824 over a thirty-day period, down 75.8% on the preceding period. Figures of this kind are snapshots and vary between sources and over time.
Reception
Osmosis has featured Mad Scientists in ecosystem highlights, characterising the StreamSwap-based launch as a response to allowlist grinding and bot-dominated mints. Commentators in the Cosmos NFT sector have described the model as potentially influential on subsequent launches; one contemporaneous account suggested the project "may have changed the way NFTs will be minted" by separating price discovery for the mint asset from the mint itself. Other projects in the wider Cosmos and Injective ecosystems have been reported as seeking to build on the approach.
See also
Osmosis (decentralized exchange)
Stargaze
Non-fungible token