Story Protocol built its identity around tokenizing intellectual property, from music rights to creative assets. That identity is now gone.
The project announced on June 25 that it is rebranding as the DATA Foundation, renaming its network the DATA Network, and migrating its existing $IP token to a new $DATA token at a 1:1 ratio. Existing holders do not need to take any action for the swap.
The pivot is a significant one. Story Protocol launched its $IP token in February 2025 with ambitions to become the backbone of IP licensing across entertainment and gaming. It raised approximately $134 million in funding, including backing from Andreessen Horowitz. The token peaked at around $14.78 in September 2025. Then the growth stalled.
CEO Andrea Muttoni pointed to a specific problem: traditional IP owners in creative sectors pushed back against licensing tokenization, limiting adoption. Meanwhile, AI labs were running into a different kind of wall entirely.
Why AI training data, and why now
