After raising $140M and building its own blockchain to bring intellectual property onchain, the a16z crypto-backed startup formerly known as Story Protocol is shutting down its chain and moving to Sui. The team rebranded to DATA Foundation in June and has since narrowed its focus to provenance of AI training data.

Sui Foundation invested $30M and becomes DATA Network's largest institutional holder.

The company's core product is Trace, a registry that records where training data comes from, who contributed it and what rights buyers have. Partner marketplace Kled adds 3M to 4M contributions a day. On Sui, DATA plans to use Walrus for storing original files and Seal for encrypting them for licensed buyers.

Existing $DATA tokens will migrate to Sui one-to-one, with holder rights and vesting schedules unchanged. The current chain stays live until the migration is complete. DATA did not disclose how much of the $140M remains or how many records have generated licensing revenue.