The Walrus protocol, a blockchain-based data storage platform, said it raised $140 million in a private sale of its native token, WAL, led by Standard Crypto.

The mainnet of the protocol, originally developed by Mysten Labs and built on layer-1 blockchain Sui, will debut on March 27, the Walrus Foundation said Thursday.

Walrus plans to capitalize on the growing market for storing large amounts of data, driven in particular by the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the last couple of years.

“By leveraging Sui’s unique architecture, we’re making storing data programmable, interactive, and secure,” Walrus Foundation managing executive Rebecca Simmonds said in the statement.

The funds from the token sale, which included participation from a16z crypto, Electric Capital, Franklin Templeton Digital Assets and RW3 Ventures, will be used to expand the project’s decentralized data storage protocol and build further applications atop it.

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