Sui invests 30M in DATA Network as the AI training data protocol prepares to leave its independent blockchain and move to Sui, according to the reported agreement. The planned transition would make Sui Foundation DATA Network’s largest institutional holder and place its Trace registry on Sui’s infrastructure.

The foundations said the existing network will keep operating until migration is complete. They have not announced a date, and said they will publish a schedule and instructions for token holders before the upgrade.

Sui Invests 30M as DATA Moves to Its Network

Under the agreement, DATA tokens will transfer to Sui at a one-to-one ratio. The organizations said holders would retain economic benefits and governance rights at least equivalent to current arrangements. Locked tokens and vesting schedules are also expected to carry over without changes.

The announcement did not disclose the investment’s valuation, the number of tokens in Sui Foundation’s stake, or the transaction’s financial structure. It also did not establish whether the full $30 million had already been transferred. Sui Foundation joins PIP Labs and DATA Foundation as an institutional holder.

SY Lee, chairman of Poseidon and CEO of PIP Labs, will join Sui Foundation as a strategic adviser. Lee previously played a central role in developing Story Protocol, which later became DATA Network.

The move follows DATA Foundation’s change in direction earlier this year. In June 2026, Story Protocol rebranded as DATA Foundation and shifted from general intellectual property licensing toward AI training data. The project renamed its original IP token to DATA and introduced a network for managing data ownership, licensing and payments.

The planned transition would retire DATA Network’s standalone blockchain. The foundations have not set a shutdown date or said whether exchanges and custodians will handle token migration automatically. They have not announced a mandatory action for holders.

Trace Registry Will Move Alongside DATA

Trace, launched in June 2026, records the origins of information used in AI training, along with associated rights and payments. DATA Foundation says the registry has recorded more than 250 million contributions and processes over three million receipts per day. The supplied figures have not been independently audited in the reviewed material.

Applications using Trace include Kled, Numo and Oto. Kled operates a marketplace for people who choose to contribute information for AI development. The Sui announcement said Kled was onboarding more than 1.5 billion records, while Numo and Oto were supplying licensed information to AI laboratories and robotics companies.

The agreement also makes Walrus the default storage layer for DATA Foundation applications. The planned integration would store encrypted copies of original datasets on Walrus, while Trace records information about contributed files and their rights. DATA Foundation said authorized users would be able to verify records against original information while access restrictions remain in place.

Adeniyi Abiodun, Mysten Labs’ co-founder and chief product officer, said demand is growing for licensed training information. He said the partnership would bring existing contributions and licensing activity to Sui. His remarks describe the organizations’ intended use of the infrastructure, not a guarantee about the legal status or quality of every dataset.

Andrea Muttoni, DATA Foundation’s CEO, said the project intends to develop encrypted file storage and potential verification tools for AI evaluations and model training. Those additional functions remain development plans.

Migration Schedule Remains the Next Step

The announcement leaves several operational details open. The foundations have not provided a migration date, holder instructions, or a timetable for shutting down the original chain. They said the current network will remain operational until the transition is complete.

The agreement links DATA’s token and registry migration with storage on Walrus. For holders, the next concrete information is expected to be the schedule and instructions the foundations said they would publish before the upgrade begins.

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