Sui (@SuiNetwork) Foundation is investing $30 million in DATA Network (@datafdn) as the AI data protocol moves onto the Sui blockchain. The deal is set to make Sui the largest institutional h
Sui (@SuiNetwork) Foundation is investing $30 million in DATA Network (@datafdn) as the AI data protocol moves onto the Sui blockchain. The deal is set to make Sui the largest institutional holder of the network, according to the announcement shared by @BSCNews.
DATA Network was previously known as Story Protocol. The Block reported that the protocol will be upgraded to run natively on Sui ($SUI), and its independent chain will be retired.
Existing $DATA tokens will move to Sui on a one-to-one basis. In the joint announcement, published via Chainwire, the partners said $DATA continues as the token of the protocol on Sui, with holder economics and governance rights at least equivalent to today.
The transition is not yet complete. The Block reported that the existing DATA Network will keep operating until the migration is finished, and that the foundation said it will publish a detailed timeline before the upgrade. No migration date has been announced so far.
Walrus (@WalrusProtocol) will become the default storage layer for applications operated by DATA Foundation. According to the announcement, Walrus is designed to store large AI datasets and ensure the data is only readable by licensed buyers.
The focus on AI follows a strategic shift. The Block noted that DATA Foundation moved its focus from general intellectual property infrastructure to AI training data in June. Its Trace registry tracks the origins and usage rights of training data and settles payment to contributors. Per the Chainwire release, Trace has logged more than 250 million contributions since launch and processes more than 3 million receipts a day.
The partners say the integration will let Trace hold an encrypted, immutable copy of contributed files on Walrus, rather than only proving that a file was registered and when. The stated aim is to scale the supply chain for rights-cleared AI training data for frontier AI labs.
For Sui, the deal adds a live data-provenance product to its AI-focused stack. For DATA, it ends the cost of running a separate Layer 1 chain. How the market and token holders respond will depend on the migration timeline, which remains unpublished.
The Block: Sui Foundation invests $30 million in DATA Network as AI data protocol migrates to Sui
