Story co-founder defends delay in unlocking Token Lockup , citing the need for more time.

Story Protocol has postponed the Token Lockup by six months, to August 2026, citing the need for more time to build a Use Case and arguing that the near-zero on-chain revenue is an inaccurate metric.

SY Lee co-founder defended the decision to delay in an interview, emphasizing that the project's core business model does not rely on on-chain transaction fees but focuses on licensing AI training data Off-Chain.

Why is Story Protocol delaying Token Lockup unlocking?

SY Lee said the project needs more time to build use cases before unlocking its first major IP Token Lockup , thus delaying the launch by another six months to August 2026.

In the interview, Lee refuted the idea of ​​using near-zero on-chain revenue to assess the project's health, calling it a flawed metric. He argued that the expectation of rapidly increasing on-chain revenue might not align with how Story creates value at its current stage.

Lee explained that Story's focus is on licensing AI training data offline, rather than charging transaction fees on-chain. Because revenue comes from Off-Chain licensing, on-chain metrics may not yet clearly reflect commercialization progress, especially since the project prioritizes completing Use Case before unlocking them.

A paradigm shift: from Tokenize to data that is difficult to scrape.

Story is shifting from Tokenize media content to human-contributed data and business licensing agreements, which may make on-chain revenue difficult to see in the short term.

Lee stated that the new direction focuses on human-contributed data and data that is difficult to scrape, serving the needs of enterprise customers in licensing AI training data. The fact that revenue is primarily generated through licensing agreements diminishes the Vai of on-chain transaction fees as a key indicator.

He also cited the precedent of Worldcoin extending the lock-up period into 2024, arguing that this was a signal of long-term commitment rather than a sign of difficulty. Lee's argument was that delaying the unlocking was intended to synchronize product and market progress with the Token distribution schedule, rather than a reaction to immediate pressure.