DATA Network Migrated Operations to Sui Blockchain
The project will sunset its independent chain to scale AI data auditing and provenance services.
Updated on Oct. 12, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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The DATA Network has announced a migration to the Sui network, supported by a $30 million investment from the Sui Foundation. The project will shut down its independent Layer 1 blockchain to operate natively on Sui while integrating with the Walrus Protocol.
Why it matters
The pivot addresses growing demand from AI developers for verifiable, consent-gathered datasets. By moving to an established infrastructure, the network aims to scale its data provenance and licensing services.
The DATA Network recorded 250 million on-chain registrations and hosts 1.5 billion user records via the application Kled. It will now use the Walrus Protocol to manage decentralized data storage and tracking.
The players
DATA Network
A blockchain-based platform focused on AI data provenance, licensing, and auditing services.
Sui Foundation
The entity supporting the development and adoption of the Sui blockchain ecosystem.
Walrus Protocol
A decentralized storage layer integrated for coordinating data provenance.
Kled
An application built on the DATA Network that has processed 1.5 billion user records.
The details
The project is shifting from maintaining a standalone Layer 1 chain—a fundamental blockchain architecture that processes and finalizes its own transactions—to running as a native protocol on the Sui network. This integration utilizes the Walrus Protocol, a decentralized storage layer, to handle the heavy lifting of data provenance and auditing. These systems collectively provide a verifiable record of data usage, which is required for AI licensing models.
Timeline
The network originally launched as an independent chain in February 2025.
The project rebranded to DATA and executed a token swap on June 25, 2026.
The migration to the Sui network was publicly revealed on October 8, 2026.
On-chain registrations reached 250 million by October 2026.
The Tech Race
This move reflects a broader trend of specialized protocols migrating to high-throughput L1 networks to handle massive AI data workloads. It places the project in direct competition with other data provenance frameworks seeking to establish the standard for verifiable training datasets.
Developers and users interacting with the DATA Network will transition to the Sui ecosystem for data auditing and licensing tasks. Existing participants should monitor project updates regarding the token migration and the specific timeline for the independent chain's sunset.
The takeaway
The migration underscores a critical need for verifiable data infrastructure as AI demand for authentic training sources grows. Watch for the protocol's integration benchmarks on the Walrus network to confirm if the infrastructure can successfully scale past its current 250 million registrations.
Further reading
Learn more about the latest infrastructure developments in Artificial Intelligence.
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