Story (IP) Doubles to Above $3 as Trading Surge Outpaces On-Chain Growth

Beincrypto reports Story (IP) doubled from a local low near $1.50 to above $3.00 in early 2026, even as on-chain metrics show weak network growth. Trading data point to South Korean traders as the main driver: CoinGecko shows daily trading volume exceeded $300 million on January 13, with Upbit accounting for more than 47% of total volume and the IP/KRW pair representing over 12% of Upbit activity, second only to XRP/KRW.

Some analysts also point to whales and renewed narrative interest; Investor Sjuul | AltCryptoGems said, "Story Protocol has had the biggest rise this week. With a price increase of over 30%, IP has rallied due to a narrative revival. Massive trading volume came in as new investors and whales joined the project." On-chain data from Storyscan show daily active accounts fell from more than 10,000 last year to fewer than 500 today (about a 95% decline), and daily new accounts remain below 100 versus more than 2,000 per day in August and September.

The article says these figures suggest the rally is primarily speculative rather than driven by tokenized IP or real-world usage. Technical commentators warn of downside risk as IP nears a resistance zone between $3.00 and $3.30; CryptoPulse commented, "On the daily timeframe, IP is moving up with strong candles and solid indicators.

Key Topics

Crypto, Story Protocol, Upbit, South Korea, Coingecko, Storyscan