The DATA Network, formerly known as Story, plans to discontinue its existing blockchain and transition to a protocol operating natively on the Sui network, a layer-1 blockchain, supported by a $30 million investment from the Sui Foundation. The organizations announced the restructuring on Monday, describing it as a strategic shift toward infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI) data licensing, storage, and payments.

Under the terms of the investment, the Sui Foundation will hold the largest institutional stake in the DATA Network, while PIP Labs and the DATA Foundation will retain their existing holdings. SY Lee, founder of the DATA Network and chief executive of PIP Labs, is also joining the Sui Foundation as a strategic adviser.

The migration will keep DATA as the protocol's native token, with existing tokens converting to the Sui network on a one-for-one basis. According to the foundations, tokenholders will retain economic interests and governance rights at least equivalent to their current entitlements. Locked tokens and holdings subject to vesting schedules will also carry over without changes.

No migration date has been announced, although the DATA Foundation's announcement indicated the protocol upgrade would arrive "in the coming months." The existing blockchain will continue operating until the transition is completed, and the foundations plan to publish a detailed schedule and a migration plan for tokenholders before implementation begins.

Market figures cited in the report showed DATA trading at approximately $0.21 at 08:36 UTC on Monday, gaining about 8% over the preceding 24 hours, with a market capitalization of roughly $75 million.

DATA Shifts Focus Toward AI Training Data

The transition follows a broader strategic reorientation of the project. The organization retired the Story name in June as it moved away from intellectual property licensing toward AI training data, introducing Trace, a system designed to track data contributions and the rights attached to them.

Trace records the origins of contributed files, documents the rights associated with them, and facilitates payments to the individuals who supply the data. The system aims to establish a verifiable record of how AI training materials are sourced and used.

According to the announcement, Trace has recorded more than 250 million contributions since its launch and processes an average of over 3 million receipts daily. The reported figures indicate growing activity around systems designed to establish provenance and accountability for data used in AI development.

The move to Sui is intended to support this expanding focus by connecting the protocol with infrastructure built for decentralized applications and digital asset transactions.

Walrus to Provide Encrypted Storage for AI Data

As part of the transition, Walrus, a decentralized storage network developed alongside Sui, will become the default storage layer for applications operated by the DATA Foundation.

The DATA Foundation announced the move in a post on X:

DATA is coming to @SuiNetwork. The DATA Network and Trace are joining the Sui stack, bringing a live supply of rights-cleared AI training data to infrastructure built for AI workloads. With 250M+ receipts already recorded by Trace, AI labs will be able to source real-world data with verifiable provenance, while @WalrusProtocol provides the underlying storage layer. Sui Foundation is investing $30 million in the DATA Network, establishing the largest institutional stake in the network, alongside the continuing holdings of PIP Labs and the DATA Foundation. Furthering the alignment, SY Lee, founder of the DATA Network and CEO of PIP Labs, joins Sui Foundation as Strategic Advisor.

In the coming months:

▸ The DATA Network will be upgraded to run as a protocol natively on Sui

▸ Walrus becomes the default storage layer for DATA Foundation apps

▸ $DATA remains the token of the DATA protocol

The next chapter of DATA starts here.

— The DATA Foundation (@datafdn) October 12, 2026

Source: The DATA Foundation on X

Trace will use Walrus to store encrypted, immutable copies of contributed files. This approach is intended to allow subsequent data processing to be checked against the original material, strengthening the ability to verify whether contributed data has been preserved and handled appropriately.

By combining data provenance records with encrypted file storage, the integration could give AI developers and data contributors stronger tools to verify the origin and integrity of training materials.

Mysten Labs co-founder and Chief Product Officer Adeniyi Abiodun highlighted the alignment between Sui's blockchain infrastructure and Walrus's storage capabilities, emphasizing their potential role in storing, licensing, and compensating contributors for AI-related data.

The DATA Foundation also sees opportunities to extend its verification capabilities beyond conventional audit records. Chief Executive Andrea Muttoni said the integration could support additional infrastructure, including trusted execution environments (TEEs), for evaluating AI models and conducting fine-tuning operations.

TEEs are designed to provide protected environments in which computations can be performed while limiting unauthorized access to sensitive data. If implemented, such capabilities could help organizations verify aspects of AI model evaluation and fine-tuning while maintaining stronger controls over data access.

Migration Could Strengthen DATA's AI Infrastructure

The restructuring combines a blockchain migration, an institutional investment, and a storage integration within a broader effort to develop infrastructure for AI data markets. The proposed system seeks to connect data contributions with ownership or usage rights, secure storage, and compensation mechanisms.

By moving to Sui while integrating Walrus, the DATA Network aims to build a more comprehensive framework for tracking, storing, and licensing AI training data, although the migration timeline and the potential deployment of additional verification features remain unannounced.