Story co-founder Lee Seung-yoon: “Delaying the IP token unlock…building real-world usage comes first”

Regarding Story (Story, IP) Protocol’s decision to push back its IP token unlock schedule by six months, Story co-founder Lee Seung-yoon said the move was driven by operational needs.

According to crypto-asset (cryptocurrency) news outlet CoinDesk on the 9th, Lee said in a recent interview that the first large-scale IP token unlock has been rescheduled to August this year—six months later than originally planned—and explained the rationale behind the change. As a result, tokens allocated to the team and investors will remain locked for an additional period.

Responding to criticism that the network has generated little on-chain revenue, Lee drew a line, saying, “On-chain revenue is not an appropriate metric for valuing an IP and AI data network.” He added, “We intentionally set gas fees low,” and said it would be difficult to expect revenue flows similar to those of decentralized finance (DeFi) chains.

Story is characterized by an on-chain IP registration and management protocol designed to clarify ownership of content and data and ensure that value created during AI training is returned to creators.

Story Protocol is shifting away from a tokenized media and content-centric model and is instead focusing on licensing unstructured data used for AI training. In this structure, revenue is generated not through on-chain transaction fees but through business-to-business licensing agreements—meaning it does not show up in short-term on-chain metrics.

Lee cited a past example, noting Worldcoin’s decision to extend its team and investor lockup period, and argued that delaying an unlock can serve as a signal of long-term trust, rather than prioritizing short-term liquidity expansion. “If we were aiming for short-term gains, we would have wanted a shorter lockup,” he said, adding that “this decision is not crisis management but an expression of long-term commitment.”

Still, as this strategic shift implies it will take more time for enterprise licensing deals and data accumulation to become visible, token holders are likely to face a continued delay in the timeline for supply expansion.

“The best teams and companies move with a horizon of more than 10 years,” Lee said, adding that “in weak market conditions, extending the vesting schedule (delaying the timing of team and investor token distributions) is a healthier choice than releasing liquidity in haste.”