Story co-founder responds to token unlock delay, stating that the project still needs time to build real use cases

Co-founder of Story Protocol, SY Lee, responded to the project's postponement of the first large-scale IP token unlock to August 2026, stating that the blockchain network still needs "more time" to build real use cases. This postponement lasts for 6 months, during which the team and investors' tokens will remain locked to reduce short-term circulation pressure.

SY Lee mentioned that the current on-chain revenue being close to zero does not accurately reflect Story's business status, as its business model does not rely on gas fees, but instead provides licensing services for human-generated data to AI training in an off-chain manner.

He pointed out that the project is shifting from tokenized media content to "non-scrapable" human contribution data and enterprise-level licensing collaborations. While this adjustment reduces short-term visible on-chain revenue, it helps to release long-term commitments and alleviate token supply pressure.