Formerly Story Protocol, the rebranded foundation is building verifiable dataset infrastructure as AI labs scramble for licensed training data
Story Protocol is dead. Long live the DATA Foundation.
The project announced its rebrand on June 25, 2026, ditching its intellectual property protocol identity for a sharper focus on one of the most pressing problems in AI right now: where do you get training data that won’t get you sued?
The answer the DATA Foundation is building toward is Trace, an onchain registry for AI training data provenance, licensing, consent, and payments. Every record comes tagged with who owns it, who licensed it, and what it can be used for.
What the pivot actually looks like #
The foundation’s anchor application is Kled, a dataset provider with access to over 1.5 billion user records spanning voice, video, and images.
The validation layer is handled by Poseidon, an incubated data-processing project that raised $15 million in July 2025. Poseidon scores and validates datasets before they enter the registry, functioning as a quality gate between raw data and the AI labs that need to trust what they’re buying.
For existing Story Protocol holders, the transition is frictionless by design. The IP token migrates to the new DATA token at a 1:1 ratio, requiring no action from current holders.
New leadership, new direction #
The DATA Foundation brought in Andrea Muttoni as CEO. Avi Patel, the founder of Kled, joins as chief data officer and adviser. Seung-yoon Lee, the original founder of Story Protocol, steps back to an advisory role.
Why this matters for the broader AI and crypto landscape #
The onchain component is load-bearing here, not decorative. A traditional database can be altered. An onchain registry creates an immutable record of what data was licensed, when, for what purpose, and by whom.
Kled’s 1.5 billion records is the number that most directly tests whether that combination is real or aspirational. If that inventory gets licensed at scale, the DATA Foundation’s model has legs.
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