Story Rebrands as The DATA Foundation, Launches Trace Audit Layer for AI Training Data

Palo Alto, California — June 25, 2026. Story, the blockchain project originally built as an intellectual property layer for the internet, announced its rebranding as The DATA Foundation and launched Trace, an onchain registry for AI training data provenance and licensing. The transition includes a flagship integration with Kled, the largest opt-in human data marketplace, which has registered 1.5 billion user-contributed records on the network.

Andrea Muttoni has been named CEO of The DATA Foundation, and Kled founder Avi Patel joins as an advisor in the role of Chief Data Officer.

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Why AI Training Data Has Become a Critical Bottleneck

Frontier AI labs have effectively exhausted the supply of high-quality, human-generated public text available on the open web, according to the foundation. The remaining data supply is either expensive and bespoke or legally undocumented, leaving labs without a way to source data at scale, prove its provenance, or guarantee its quality. Legal risks are rising as labs build market-defining products on data sourced through opaque networks, often without clear records of consent or jurisdiction.

“The challenge in AI has shifted from compute and architecture to sourcing and provenance. As the scrapable web fractures, the question for labs now is who is keeping the receipts,” said Andrea Muttoni, CEO of The DATA Foundation. “With Kled, we combine full data transparency and auditability with the largest pool of AI training data on the planet.”

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Trace: A Public Audit Layer for AI Data

Trace, the foundation’s public audit and search platform, generates immutable, confidential receipts for every data contribution. This allows labs to verify the legitimacy of datasets in seconds. For every record uploaded by users worldwide, a receipt on the DATA Network is generated, enabling upstream compensation for contributors’ data and intellectual property. The platform addresses what the foundation describes as a legal and operational minefield in the AI training data market.

Poseidon and Numo: Building the Contributor Network

The foundation’s thesis was validated by Poseidon, an AI data processing project incubated by Story that cleans, normalizes, and scores raw human data for authenticity and quality. Backed by a16z and now running entirely on DATA, Poseidon’s contributor app Numo is live today, bringing thousands of contributors into the AI economy with real-time payouts.

“We started Story to build an IP layer for the internet, and the most important IP of this era is the data you can’t scrape: how a surgeon’s hands move, how a robot grips, how people speak, drive, and work in the real world,” said SY Lee, CEO of PIP Labs and strategic adviser to The DATA Foundation. “DATA is where that conviction goes next: an end-to-end network that proves real-world data’s origin, licenses it, and pays the people who made it.”

Token Migration and Ecosystem Continuity

The $IP token migrates to $DATA on a one-to-one basis with no action required from existing holders. Migration guidance, exchange timing, and an FAQ are available on the foundation’s website at datafdn.org.

Written by

Zoi Dimitriou

Zoi Dimitriou is a cryptocurrency analyst and senior writer at CryptoNewsInsights, specializing in DeFi protocol analysis, Ethereum ecosystem developments, and cross-chain bridge security. With seven years of experience in blockchain journalism and a background in applied mathematics, Zoi combines technical depth with accessible writing to help readers understand complex decentralized finance concepts. She covers yield farming strategies, liquidity pool dynamics, governance token economics, and smart contract audit findings with a focus on risk assessment and investor education.