Summary: The Market Mogul covers MAPS’ recent announcement about accepting cryptocurrency donations in Monero (XMR) in addition to accepting donations in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The article also covers a brief outline of MAPS’ ongoing psychedelic and marijuana research.
Originally appearing here.
The research body looking into adopting MDMA for use in medicine and psychotherapy has announced it will now accept donations in Monero (XMR).
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) announced the news on Wednesday evening; the non-profit organisation already accepts donations in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
MAPS is looking to gain approval from America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for using MDMA as a medicine by 2021. As well as MDMA, the organisation is also researching how marijuana and other psychedelic substances could be used to treat mental health disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Clinical trials conducted by MAPS into MDMA-assisted psychotherapy are in phase 3.
Primarily used as a recreational drug, when taken MDMA or “ecstasy” induces feelings of euphoria and heightened sensations. It currently has no approved medical uses.
Founded in 1986, on their website MAPS describe themselves as: “a non-profit research and educational organisation that develops medical, legal and cultural context for people to benefit from the careful use of psychedelics and marijuana.” According to their report for the 2016 financial year, the company’s net assets increased by over 1,200% to $9.9m.
In December of last year, MAPS said they had received a $1m donation in bitcoin from The Pineapple Fund, the organisation of an anonymous donor who according to the fund’s website has given $86m worth of BTC to charity. The fund is also matching $4m worth of donations to MAPS until the end of this week. Other beneficiaries of the fund include the Water Project and Watsi.
Monero, which according to CoinMarketCap has the 9th largest market capitalisation, is presently worth just over $322, giving it a total value of $5bn. Since the beginning of the month, XMR has increased by 12%, having been worth $286.
In early February it was revealed that bot managed to infect over 500,000 computers, hijacking their processing power to generate as much as $3.6m worth of Monero. Malevolent ads on Youtube were also found to be crypto-jacking computers to mine XMR tokens.
