PIP Labs Sheds Workers as Story Protocol Leans Into AI – Decrypt

PIP Labs, the corporate behind Story Protocol, a layer-1 community for licensing and sustaining mental property, has let go of a number of workers because it explores alternatives related to synthetic intelligence.

The reductions embrace 5 full-time workers and three contractors, representing round 10% of employees contributing to Story throughout varied entities, the corporate instructed Decrypt. That features the Story Basis and infrastructure layer Poseidon, based on Story Chief Protocol Officer Andrea Muttoni.

“PIP Labs is sharpening focus [through] a small workforce adjustment,” she stated in a press release to Decrypt, noting that the corporate has begun leaning into IP infrastructure for AI, with a deal with AI buying and selling knowledge and the emergence of AI brokers.

In a Telegram message reviewed by Decrypt, a former worker stated the layoffs pertained to fifteen% of the employees behind Story Protocol, together with employees that labored on occasions.

When Story unveiled an $80 million Sequence B funding spherical in 2024, PIP Labs positioned the community as a brand new approach to cut back friction for creatives, by permitting them license and remix IP with out the necessity of rent-seeking attorneys. By programmable licensing, Story is designed to automate royalty funds.

The funding spherical valued PIP Labs at $2 billion and was led by enterprise capital big Andreessen Horowitz, drawing participation from people together with Walt Disney Imagineering govt Scott Trowbridge and pseudonymous NFT collector Cozomo de’ Medici.

The community debuted final February alongside its native IP token, which has fallen 86% to about $0.80 over the previous 12 months, based on CoinGecko. In September, the token reached an all-time excessive of $14.78, equating to a market cap of practically $3.4 billion.

That month, a Story-based meme coin modeled on “Child Shark” creator Pinkfong collapsed after a dispute emerged over IP from the South Korean agency behind the viral YouTube hit. On X, Story apologized for the confusion, noting that it wasn’t concerned in licensing issues between IP World, a platform for IP-backed meme cash, and different entities.

Muttoni stated Story stays centered on IP, whether or not that touches industries like media or biotech, however its newest spherical of layoffs suggests the corporate has grown more and more curious about machine-based customers versus people. The shift comes as firms together with Coinbase race to convey crypto wallets for brokers to market.

Final 12 months, Poseidon, an organization incubated by Story, raised $15 million in a seed funding spherical additionally led by Andreessen Horowitz. The startup permits AI builders to entry legally cleared coaching knowledge, and Muttoni stated Poseidon’s current “traction is shaping the place Story will double down.”

In January, Poseidon launched a dataset containing 33,000 hours of audio throughout 17 languages. On X, Poseidon Chief Scientist Sandeep Chinchali stated audio represents a limiting issue for AI as a result of it’s changing into a main interface between people and AI.

PIP Labs’ layoffs comply with a sequence of employees reductions amongst crypto business corporations this 12 months. Earlier this week, the staff behind Ethereum layer-2 community Optimism let go of 20 workers. And final month, Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc. let go of 4,000 workers—roughly 40% of its workforce—attributing the transfer to its pivot in the direction of AI alongside PIP Labs.