The Sui Foundation is investing $30 million in DATA Network, an AI-training data provenance protocol, and backing the full migration of that network onto its own infrastructure alongside the Walrus storage layer.
🔑 In brief
- The Sui Foundation is taking a $30M stake in DATA Network
- DATA will be upgraded as a native protocol on Sui and its standalone chain will be retired
- The DATA token will move to Sui at a 1:1 ratio, preserving economic and governance rights
- Walrus becomes the default storage layer for applications run by the DATA Foundation
- The Trace ledger has already recorded over 250 million contributions and processes more than 3 million receipts per day
A $30 million strategic investment
According to a joint statement from the Sui Foundation and the DATA Foundation seen by The Block, the $30 million investment will make the Sui Foundation the largest institutional holder of the DATA Network, alongside existing stakeholders PIP Labs and the DATA Foundation.
As part of the partnership, DATA Network will be upgraded to function as a native protocol on Sui, and its independent chain will be retired. The existing DATA token will be transferred to Sui at a 1:1 ratio. Holders’ economic and governance rights will be preserved at least at the level they currently enjoy, and existing locked positions and vesting schedules will remain unchanged. The current network will keep running until the transition completes, and a detailed timetable and token-holder transition plan will be published ahead of the upgrade.
“The AI industry has reached the point where the open internet has been read, and the next frontier is defined by access to datasets with the consent and provenance that regulators require.”
Adeniyi Abiodun, co-founder and chief product officer at Mysten Labs
As part of the strengthened alliance, SY Lee, chairman of Poseidon and CEO of PIP Labs, will also join the Sui Foundation as a strategic advisor.
Walrus becomes the default storage layer
Walrus, the on-chain data storage platform developed within the Sui ecosystem, will become the default storage layer for applications operated by the DATA Foundation. Walrus can store large files and make them available under specified access conditions, with integrity proofs anchored on Sui.
This integration is designed to strengthen provenance guarantees by storing an encrypted, immutable copy of each contributed source file, accessible only to licensed buyers. Andrea Muttoni, CEO of the DATA Foundation, expands on the rationale:
“Training data is critical to continue pushing the frontier, and making sure it is traceable, auditable and licensed for use is as important for AI safety as it is a prerequisite for data quality.”
Andrea Muttoni, CEO of the DATA Foundation
Trace: 250 million contributions already recorded
The Trace ledger, launched by the DATA Foundation in June 2026, will also be integrated into Sui. Trace is an on-chain ledger that records the origin of every training-data contribution, the rights attached to it, and pays out the person who provided it. According to figures provided by the foundation, Trace has recorded more than 250 million contributions since launch and currently processes an average of more than 3 million receipts per day.
| Application | Function | Volume |
|---|---|---|
| Trace | Provenance and licensing registry | 250M+ contributions, 3M receipts/day |
| Kled | Opt-in human data marketplace | 1.5 billion records being integrated |
| Numo | Licensed data for AI labs | n.d. |
| Oto | Licensed data for robotics | n.d. |
Apps writing to Trace include Kled, the largest opt-in human data marketplace with over 1.5 billion records in integration, as well as Numo and Oto, two applications that already license data to top-tier AI labs and robotics companies.
“The next generation of AI will be trained on data that lives with people rather than the open web, and that data needs consent and provenance built in, plus a way to pay the people it comes from.”
SY Lee, chairman of Poseidon and CEO of PIP Labs
A technical and economic decision
The decision to migrate follows a major strategic pivot by the DATA Foundation. In June 2026, Story Protocol rebranded as the DATA Foundation and shifted its focus from general intellectual-property infrastructure toward training data for AI. The transition included renaming the original IP token to DATA and introducing a dedicated network for managing data ownership, licensing and payments.
A spokesperson for the DATA Foundation told Cointelegraph that running a dedicated blockchain for a single use case implied validator, network security and infrastructure costs. “Building storage and access control at this scale ourselves would have meant rebuilding what Sui already has with Walrus and Seal,” the spokesperson said. According to the spokesperson, the migration decision was independent of the investment, even though both are part of the same partnership.
Throughput and prior milestones on Sui
On the technical side, Sui has continued to build out capabilities aimed at handling very high volumes of automated activity. On October 7, 2025, the foundation announced that its programmable off-chain tunnels hit 40,614,180 transactions per second in a demo at Sui Basecamp in Singapore. The test involved off-chain channels that settle on the Sui mainnet, not regular mainnet transactions. CertiK independently observed the demonstration.
Walrus has also seen recent traction. In March 2025, the Walrus Foundation secured $140 million in funding led by Standard Crypto, with participation from other digital-asset investors. In June 2025, decentralized cloud provider io.net integrated Walrus for encrypted AI model storage.
Conclusion: toward a unified infrastructure for AI data
The deal brings DATA Network onto a proven technical stack and lets the foundation focus on the application layer: traceability, consent and contributor payouts. For Sui, the influx of more than 250 million already-traced contributions and several vertical applications is a meaningful usage signal at a time when infrastructure projects need to demonstrate real adoption.
Several questions remain open: no migration date has been announced, and it is unclear whether exchanges, custodians and other service providers will handle the token swap automatically. Holders currently have no mandatory action to take, but a detailed timetable and transition plan will be published before the upgrade.
Sources
- The Block – Sui Foundation invests $30 million in DATA Network
- Sui Foundation – DATA Network joins Sui and Walrus
- Crypto.news – Sui invests $30M as DATA Network shuts down its blockchain
- Cointelegraph / TradingView – DATA Network to migrate to Sui
- Cryptonomist – Sui Foundation investment in DATA
This article is published for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice. Do your own research (DYOR) before making any decision.
