Scientists who turned to OnlyFans to fund marmot research receive crypto boost

Scientists who turned to OnlyFans to help save long-running research into marmots have raised more than $100,000 after harnessing the support of another, very modern, funding avenue – cryptocurrency.

The 60-year project of continuous study of marmots – stout, ground-dwelling rodents that are the largest members of the squirrel family – across the US west was facing termination following science funding cuts imposed by Donald Trump’s administration.

In desperation, researchers in June decided to put the marmots on OnlyFans, the adult-content website, to raise funds. Since then, posts on the new account, named OnlyMarms, have shown marmots scurrying across rocky landscapes and entering their burrows, rather than anything sexually explicit.

“Our goal isn’t really to sexualise the marmots,” said Daniel Blumstein, a professor at UCLA who got the idea after watching Margo’s Got Money Troubles, a TV show based on a novel about a single mother who turns to OnlyFans in order to support herself and her child. “It’s to celebrate the marmots.”

This effort has raised a modest $6,000 for the marmots but a further, much larger, funding boost for the project has recently materialized in the form of a new marmot-themed cryptocurrency. A new “meme coin” named $OnlyMarms was created by outside supporters of the project who donated all transaction fees to the study.