Story Protocol token unlock delay: co-founder SY Lee defended the decision to push the project’s first major IP token unlock back by six months to August, a move that keeps team and investor tokens locked. The six-month shift was compared with Worldcoin’s longer investor and team lockup extensions from three to five years, and reported figures show Story’s daily revenue peaked at $43,000 in September 2025 and is currently $0.
Story Protocol announced last year that it would shift from tokenizing media content or collectibles to focusing on licensing human-generated datasets for AI training, altering the project’s primary product offering. The pivot centers on recording ownership terms and usage rights for datasets and the models trained on them, rather than selling discrete media items on-chain as tokens.
The types of data to be licensed were described as unscrapable human-contributed material, specifically cited examples such as multilingual voice samples and first-person video that contribute to AI training. This approach reframes the network as an IP registry that emphasizes provenance and explicit usage terms for datasets and models used in AI development.
Monetization is expected to occur offchain through licensing agreements rather than through onchain tolls, with commercial terms handled outside the blockchain ledger. Payments and royalty splits are planned to be embedded in smart contracts to govern licensing arrangements and automate distribution mechanics.
Project commentary characterized gas revenue as a lagging indicator for a network primarily focused on IP rights, provenance and usage terms. The combination of offchain licensing, smart-contract-embedded payments and an emphasis on recording ownership and usage rights composes the project’s stated model for monetizing human-generated datasets used in AI training.
Story Protocol co-founder SY Lee defended the project’s decision to push its first major IP token unlock back by six months to August. Lee used the phrase ‘more time’ when describing the rationale and said, ‘If we were all mercenary, we would have wanted a shorter lockup.’ The six-month delay keeps tokens allocated to team members and investors locked. Lee presented the decision in a defensive, explanatory manner consistent with a long-term strategic focus for the project.
The postponement was compared with Worldcoin’s extension of investor and team lockups from three to five years. That comparison was raised in public coverage of the token schedule. Project commentary framed the shorter, six-month postponement as intended to preserve long-term alignment rather than enable early token access. The remarks were presented as part of a defensive explanation of the timing decision.
Story Protocol now focuses on licensing unscrapable human-contributed data, citing examples such as multilingual voice samples and first-person video for use in AI training. The project shifted away from tokenizing media content or collectibles toward datasets and models intended for AI training. The IP asset types the project emphasizes are datasets and usage rights rather than typical media or collectible tokenization. The pivot reframes ownership and usage rights as the primary IP assets to be licensed for AI developers and model builders.
Story Protocol co-founder SY Lee defended the token unlock delay, which keeps team and investor tokens locked while the project emphasizes long-term alignment. The project has pivoted from tokenizing media content and collectibles to licensing human-contributed datasets for AI training, and it expects monetization to occur offchain through licensing agreements with payments and royalty splits embedded in smart contracts.
