DATA Foundation Plans to Move DATA Network to Sui as It Refocuses on AI Training Data

DATA Foundation plans to shift DATA Network’s protocol to Sui and retire its separate chain after an upgrade, focusing development on Trace, which tracks the origins and rights of AI training data.

The planned migration is backed by a $30 million investment from Sui Foundation. The investment gives Sui Foundation the network’s largest institutional position alongside PIP Labs and DATA Foundation. DATA Foundation plans to make Walrus the standard storage layer for its applications, pairing Trace records with encrypted reference copies of contributed files. The existing DATA Network will remain operational until the upgrade is complete.

The project’s product focus has since narrowed. PIP Labs built Story Protocol to manage intellectual property rights and licensing across multiple fields using onchain tools. a16z crypto led an $80 million Series B for PIP Labs in 2024. The project took the DATA Foundation name in June 2026 and redirected its work toward AI training data.

The earlier strategy faced entrenched licensing markets and limited interest from large rights holders in permissionless licensing. “We were trying to boil the ocean, and it was a very saturated and entrenched ocean,” DATA Foundation CEO Andrea Muttoni said.

Since launching in June 2026, Trace has logged more than 250 million contributions and averages more than three million receipts a day. More than 1.5 billion Kled records are in the process of being added to Trace. That total covers records still being brought into the system, not completed registrations, and the activity counts do not indicate sales volume. The foundation has not published a figure for records that have produced licensing revenue. Trace tracks where contributions originated and the rights attached to them, with payments to contributors built into the system.

The DATA token ($DATA) is slated to move to Sui at a 1:1 ratio, preserving the existing total supply. Locked positions and vesting schedules are to transfer without changes, while holder economics and governance rights are intended to remain at least equivalent. The transition is planned in phases, but no date has been announced. DATA Foundation plans to publish a holder transition plan before the upgrade, and tokenholders do not need to take action now.