Story Lianchuang Defends Token Unlock Delay, Says the Project Needs "More Time"

PANews February 9 News, according to CoinDesk, Story Protocol co-founder S.Y. Lee defended the decision to delay token unlocks in an interview. The project has postponed its first major IP token unlock by six months to August 2026. Lee stated that the project needs “more time” to build use cases and pointed out that the current near-zero on-chain revenue is an “incorrect metric.” He explained that the core of Story’s business model is offline licensing of AI training data, rather than on-chain transaction fees. The project is shifting from tokenized media content to “uncrawlable” human contribution data and enterprise licensing agreements, which delays the visibility of on-chain revenue. Lee cited the example of Worldcoin extending its lock-up period in 2024, saying this move is a signal of long-term commitment rather than a sign of trouble.