PIP Labs, the company behind Story Protocol, a layer 1 network for licensing and maintaining intellectual property, has laid off several employees as it explores opportunities related to artificial intelligence.
The reductions include five full-time employees and three contractors, representing approximately 10% of the workforce contributing to Story across entities, the company said. Declutter. That includes the Story Foundation and infrastructure layer Poseidon, according to Story Chief Protocol Officer Andrea Muttoni.
“PIP Labs sharpens the focus [through] a small adjustment to the workforce,” she said in a statement Declutternoting that the company has begun to focus on IP infrastructure for AI, with a focus on AI trading data and the rise of AI agents.
In a Telegram message reviewed by DeclutterAccording to a former employee, the layoffs affected 15% of the staff behind Story Protocol, including staff working on events.
When Story unveiled an $80 million Series B funding round in 2024, PIP Labs positioned the network as a new way to reduce friction for creatives, allowing them to license and remix IP without the need for rent-seeking lawyers. Through programmable licensing, Story is designed to automate royalty payments.
The funding round valued PIP Labs at $2 billion and was led by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, drawing participation from individuals including Walt Disney Imagineering director Scott Trowbridge and the pseudonymous NFT collector. Cozomo de’Medici.
The network debuted last February along with its native IP token, which has fallen 86% over the past year to around $0.80, according to Coin gecko. In September, the token reached an all-time high of $14.78, representing a market capitalization of almost $3.4 billion.
That month, a story-based meme coin modeled after Pinkfong, the creator of “Baby Shark,” collapsed after a dispute arose about IP from the South Korean company behind the viral YouTube hit. On
Muttoni said Story remains focused on IP, whether that touches sectors like media or biotech, but the latest round of layoffs suggests the company has become increasingly interested in machine-based users rather than people. The shift comes as companies including Coinbase race to launch crypto wallets for agents.
Last year, Poseidon, a company founded by Story, raised $15 million in a seed funding round also led by Andreessen Horowitz. The startup gives AI developers access to legally approved training data, and Muttoni said Poseidon’s recent “traction will determine where Story will double down.”
In January, Poseidon introduced a dataset with 33,000 hours of audio in 17 languages. About X, Poseidon chief scientist Sandeep Chinchali said audio represents a limiting factor for AI because it is becoming a primary interface between humans and AI.
The PIP Labs layoffs to follow a series of staff cuts among companies in the crypto industry this year. Earlier this week, the team behind Ethereum announced layer-2 network Optimism let go of 20 employees. And last month, Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc. Layoffs of 4,000 employees (about 40% of the workforce), attributing the move to the shift to AI alongside PIP Labs.