Layer 1 blockchain Story Protocol has postponed the scheduled unlock of its $IP token by six months, moving the release of team, investor, and early contributor tokens from February 2026 to August 2026. The decision is part of a long-term strategy to strengthen community alignment and reinforce the network's economic foundations by introducing new liquidity more gradually.
The project, which aims to make intellectual property programmable on-chain, stated the delay does not alter the total 1 billion token supply, individual allocations, or legal ownership. An automated smart-contract mechanism has been implemented to enforce the updated lockup terms, with the foundation clarifying it does not gain custody of wallets or the ability to move tokens.
The $IP token is currently trading around $1.45 to $1.50, reflecting a 32% decline over the past 30 days, underperforming the broader CoinDesk 20 Index's 22% drop. This highlights the challenging market conditions Story cited. On-chain metrics from DeFiLlama reveal nearly non-existent activity, with less than $100 in daily on-chain revenue, underscoring that much of the token's $500 million valuation is tied to future expectations rather than present cash flow.
The announcement comes during a month when the crypto industry faces over $400 million in increased supply from token unlocks, with additional emissions from miners and stakers adding another $2.5 billion. Story Protocol's token generation event in February 2025 released 250 million IP tokens worth $637 million at the time. Currently, 367 million tokens are in circulation.
In related developments, the project recently introduced improvement proposals SIP 0009 and SIP 00010, aimed at making staking easier by reducing the minimum IP required to stake from 1024 to 32 and cutting staking operation fees by 90%. The team stated these measures are designed to moderate token issuance and improve stake distribution. Late last year, co-founder Jason Zhao stepped back from day-to-day operations to join a new AI venture.
