Story Protocol Rebrands as Data Network in AI Training Pivot After IP Token Falls 98%

Story Protocol, the decentralized network originally designed to revolutionize the intellectual property industry, has rebranded to Data Network amid a strategic refocus on artificial intelligence. 

The transition includes the launch of Trace, an on-chain registry for AI training data and an integration with Kled, an opt-in human data marketplace. Despite all its work around IP, the firm’s leadership said it was not all for naught. 

“2025 wasn’t wasted,” Data Foundation CEO Andrea Muttoni posted on X. “It gave us lots of signals and learnings.”

According to Muttoni, the clearest signal came from Poseidon, an AI data processing project it worked on that eventually raised $15 million from a16z. 

“The answer became unambiguous: The form of IP pulling hardest was AI training data,” he said. “Labs have effectively run out of internet to scrape. What remains is either expensive and bespoke, or legally risky and undocumented.”

Data Network aims to solve that problem, connecting data processing, sourcing, and verification in one place. 

“No company can answer all three of these questions today,” he said. “That’s the gap we have been positioned to fill since day one, and that is the problem we are now dedicating our lives to solving.”

As part of the firm’s transition its Story Protocol token (IP) has become the Data Network token (DATA). Tokens will migrate in a 1:1 ratio, and will not require any action from IP holders.

DATA, which once traded as high as $14.78 as IP, was recently changing hands at $0.349—about a 14% jump in the last 24 hours of trading. 

Nevertheless, at that mark, it sits nearly 98% off its all-time high last September. That’s after rebounding 25% from an all-time low price of $0.275 earlier this month.

“We’ve made our bet, and are fortunate to have amazing launch partners to validate our product-market fit and shape our product trajectory,” said Muttoni. “Now it’s all about scaling and execution.”