One day after 23andMe received clearance from a judge to put itself up for sale, the Sei Foundation said it is in "the process of placing its boldest DeSci bet yet" by exploring the acquisition of the genetic testing company.
"We believe user data sovereignty is a matter of national security," the Sei Foundation, which supports the Layer 1 blockchain Sei, wrote Thursday in post on X. "When an American biotech pioneer faces bankruptcy, personal genomic data of millions becomes vulnerable to parties that may not share the same values of transparency and open access."
The Sei Foundation says this is to "defend the genetic privacy of 15 million Americans and ensure their data is protected for generations to come."
23andMe announced on March 23 that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. "Under bankruptcy rules, any sale would need to bring in more than the company owes creditors — at least $214 million — before anything could be paid to shareholders," Bloomberg reports.
On Wednesday, the company won permission from a judge to try to sell its assets, the most valuable of which are information about customers’ medical and ancestry-related data. 23andMe launched in 2006, and since going public in 2021, the company has never turned a profit.
DecSci is the use of web3 infrastructure in the scientific process. It aims to make scientific work more transparent, accessible and collaborative by placing data onchain or funding research pursuits with cryptocurrency.
In January, the Sei Foundation launched Sapien Capital, a $65 million venture fund to back DeSci startups building on the Sei blockchain.
What exactly would Sei do with 23andMe? The firm laid out three use cases for its vision: Deploy 23andMe on Sei blockchain, return data ownership to users through encrypted transfers, and allow users to choose how their data is monetized and share in the revenue.
"This isn't just about saving a company, it's about building a future where your most personal data remains yours to control," the Sei Foundation said in its post on X. "We'll be sharing updates in the near future."
23andMe's stock jumped 45% to close at $0.77 a share on Thursday with a $21 million market cap. The price of the SEI token was up about 1.1% in the 24 hours before publication time to $0.21, according to The Block's price data. The token has a fully diluted value of $2.1 billion.
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