Story once had a $2.25 billion valuation, but now it’s shutting down its own blockchain. On October 12, the Sui Foundation announced its investment in Story’s transformed DATA Network, which will now operate on Sui. What I care about more is the numbers before the move: the revenue from Story’s on-chain applications can no longer support an independent blockchain. In August 2024, Story raised funds at a $2.25 billion valuation. But its monthly on-chain application revenue dropped from around $145,000 in September 2025 to just $3,893 in September 2026. They could pitch a high valuation during fundraising, but the on-chain usage didn’t keep up. With revenue plummeting, the team pivoted their business. In June this year, Story rebranded as DATA Foundation, converting its IP tokens to DATA at a 1:1 ratio, shifting focus from intellectual property infrastructure to AI training data. Both the name and the business changed, but the original blockchain was still around at the time. By September this year, Story’s on-chain applications were only making $3,893 a month. Seeing that number left me stunned: while the business can move, the validators and staking on the original chain still need to be maintained. With no one using the chain, the valuation from back then can’t cover this bill. Then, on October 12, the Sui Foundation announced a $30 million investment in DATA Network, becoming its largest institutional holder. DATA Network will now become a native protocol on Sui, while Story’s original independent blockchain is set to retire. First, the team changed the business, and now they’re even switching the chain that runs it. After the announcement, DATA’s price jumped from around $0.197 to $0.221 within two hours, before settling back near $0.20. The token price had a brief rally, but the migration plan remains unchanged: validators, staking, and contracts on the original chain will be gradually shut down, and DATA’s existing transaction fees and staking features will also disappear. On-chain revenue couldn’t sustain an independent blockchain, and in the end, Story couldn’t even keep its own chain.