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 been rebranded as 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 marketplace for human data. Despite all the work around IP, company leadership said it wasn’t all in vain.

“2025 was not wasted,” Data Foundation CEO Andrea Muttoni posted on X. “It gave us a lot of signals and lessons.”

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

“The answer became unequivocal: the form of IP pulling that was most difficult was AI training data,” he said. “Laboratories essentially no longer have any internet to scrap. What remains is either expensive and custom-made, or legally risky and undocumented.”

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

“No company today can answer all three of these questions,” he said. “That’s the hole we’ve had to fill since day one, and that’s the problem we’re now devoting our lives to.”

As part of the company’s transition, the Story Protocol (IP) token has become the Data Network token (DATA). Tokens migrate at a 1:1 ratio and require no action from IP holders.

DATA, which once traded IP at $14.78, recently changed hands at $0.349 – up about 14% in the last 24 trading hours.

Nevertheless, at that point the price is almost 98% below the all-time high of last September. That’s after a 25% recovery from an all-time low of $0.275 earlier this month.

“We took a chance and are fortunate to have great launch partners who can validate our product-market fit and shape our product journey,” said Muttoni. “Now it’s all about scaling and execution.”