DATA Shuts Down Its Own Blockchain and Moves to Sui After $30 Million
The startup, backed by a16z crypto, is moving the $DATA token to Sui. With $30 million from the Sui Foundation, DATA is now focusing on AI training data and data provenance.
Key Takeaways
- DATA is shutting down its own blockchain and moving to Sui after a $30 million investment from the Sui Foundation.
- The company is now focusing on AI training data and on Trace, a registry for data provenance, contributions, and usage rights.
- The $DATA token is migrating one-to-one to Sui, while the current blockchain will keep running until the migration is complete.
DATA, the blockchain startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz's a16z crypto and formerly called Story Protocol, is shutting down its own blockchain and moving to Sui. The Sui Foundation is investing $30 million in the company, which is now focusing more on AI training data and on tracking data provenance and usage rights.
From IP to AI Data
The company started in 2022 with a much broader ambition: bringing intellectual property like music royalties, patents, and trademarks onchain. That approach turned out to be harder than expected. According to CEO Andrea Muttoni, the market was already heavily saturated and many sectors already had existing systems, while major rights holders showed little interest in permissionless licenses.
That is why Story shifted focus earlier this year and became the DATA Foundation. In June, the company pivoted toward AI training data, but now that direction is being sharpened even further. The core of the work is increasingly centered on Trace, a registry that records where training data came from, who contributed it, and what rights buyers have to use the data.
Why Sui Fits Now
The move to Sui means DATA no longer has to maintain its own blockchain. That cuts costs for things like engineers, validators, audits, and infrastructure providers. At the same time, the company gets access to Sui tools that fit the next phase of Trace.
One of those pieces is Walrus, a decentralized storage platform that can keep copies of the original files. Seal can encrypt those files and make them accessible only to buyers with the right permissions. In practice, that should help verify whether received data still matches the original submission.
Sui uses an object-based model and can process transactions in parallel, which makes the network scalable. The blockchain has also built out a growing financial layer: earlier this year, the DeFi sector on Sui passed $2 billion (€1.8 billion) in total value locked, while Canary Capital launched the first spot SUI ETF in February. For European crypto followers, that shows Sui is gaining more traction not just technically, but institutionally too.
Token and Investors
The existing $DATA token is moving one-to-one to Sui. The current blockchain will keep running until the migration is complete, and holders will keep their rights and vesting schedules. Muttoni did not say how much of the original $140 million (€125 million) in funding is still left, but he did say existing investors, including a16z crypto, will remain involved.
The new move fits into a broader trend of more crypto projects moving toward AI. Coinbase CEO Armstrong also recently stressed that blockchain can be a base layer for agentic payments and automation. DATA mainly sees opportunities in the auditability and provenance of data, not in directly running its own marketplace. Muttoni did not rule out the company running a marketplace itself later on.
