Walrus by Mysten Labs: status and timeline

Walrus

Offer storage fast and cheap enough for live apps, AI agents and media, not just archives, while no single company controls or can delete the data.

DeployStage 4 of 5

Mainnet since Mar 2025; 467 TB stored and 200+ projects building after one year.

Updated 27 Mar 2026Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Grow AI-agent memory and data use cases

Walrus Foundation raises $140M in token sale20 Mar 2025Complete.
Mainnet launch with WAL token27 Mar 2025Complete.
Research paper on RedStuff encoding8 May 2025Complete.
Seal encryption and access control live3 Sep 2025Complete.
One year: 467 TB stored, 200+ projects27 Mar 2026Complete.
Grow AI-agent memory and data use casesNowCurrent milestone.

Most important updates

Current obstacles

Usage depends on a young ecosystemMuch demand comes from Sui-based apps. Growing paying users beyond crypto, such as media and AI firms, is still early.
Proving data is really storedOperators are paid to keep data; the network must catch those who cheat, even when network delays could hide it.

Physics limits

Redundancy has a floorTo survive many nodes failing or lying, data must be stored several times over; erasure codes cut this from full copies to a few times the file, but never to one.
Distance and bandwidth set speedReading a file means pulling pieces from nodes around the world, so latency and bandwidth are bounded by the slowest needed links, unlike one nearby data centre.
Data cannot be truly deletedOnce pieces sit on many independent machines, no one can guarantee every copy is erased, which clashes with privacy rules unless data is encrypted first.

How it works

4 parts

Encoding

Files cut into coded pieces

Each file is split and encoded twice, as rows and columns of a grid, into slivers spread over many nodes. A third of the nodes is enough to rebuild it.

Overhead

4.5x instead of full copies

Keeping full copies on every node would multiply cost by the node count. Coding stores about 4.5 times the file yet survives losing most nodes.

Healing

Cheap repair when nodes leave

A node that lost its piece fetches only a small share of data from others, not the whole file, so churn among operators stays affordable.

Sui

Blockchain keeps the receipts

Sui records who paid, for how long, and proof the file is available. Apps can own and program files like any on-chain object; operators stake WAL.

Spec sheet

Spec	Walrus
Data stored (Mar 2026)	467 TB^R (reported)
Storage overhead	About 4.5x the file size^R (reported)
Projects building (Mar 2026)	200+^R (reported)
WAL total supply	5 billion^R (reported)
Token sale (Mar 2025)	$140M^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Update log

4 updates

About Mysten Labs

The team behind Walrus

Mysten Labs

Sui blockchain, Move programming language, Layer-1 infrastructure

Mysten Labs is the core team behind Sui, a Layer-1 blockchain founded by former Meta engineers focused on high-speed, low-latency applications. The company uses the Move programming language and focuses on infrastructure enabling gaming, DeFi and consumer applications.

Sui third-largest non-EVM blockchain: 2.6B+ TVL, 160M+ daily transactions.
75M+ non-vote transactions daily with 2.5M+ daily active users in 2026.
Founded 2021 by Meta engineers: Evan Cheng (CEO), Sam Blackshear (CTO), Abiodun, Danezis. Raised $336M total.

mystenlabs.com (opens mystenlabs.com)Company profile →

Founded: 20215 yrs
Headquarters: United States
Status: Private
Valuation: $2BprivateMar 2025
Raised: $336M2 rounds
Last round: Series B · $300MSep 2022
Works in: CryptoBlockchains (L1s)
Coverage: 2 programs · 9 updateslatest 27 Mar 2026checked 10 Oct
Lead investors: FTX VenturesAndreessen Horowitz
Partners: Meta (opens meta.com)
Investors: Andreessen Horowitz (opens a16z.com)FTX Ventures (opens ftx.ventures)
People: Evan Cheng (opens linkedin.com)CEOSam Blackshear (opens cryptobriefing.com)CTO (until 2024, joined Anthropic)Adeniyi Abiodun (opens mystenlabs.com)Co-founder

Spec

Walrus

Data stored (Mar 2026)

467 TB^R (reported)

Storage overhead

About 4.5x the file size^R (reported)

Projects building (Mar 2026)

200+^R (reported)

WAL total supply

5 billion^R (reported)

Token sale (Mar 2025)

$140M^R (reported)

Walrus

Milestones

Most important updates

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

Files cut into coded pieces

4.5x instead of full copies

Cheap repair when nodes leave

Blockchain keeps the receipts

Spec sheet

Update log

Fri 27 Mar

Wed 3 Sep 2025

Thu 27 Mar 2025

Thu 20 Mar 2025

About Mysten Labs

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

Files cut into coded pieces

4.5x instead of full copies

Cheap repair when nodes leave

Blockchain keeps the receipts

Spec sheet

Update log

Fri 27 Mar

Wed 3 Sep 2025

Thu 27 Mar 2025

Thu 20 Mar 2025

About Mysten Labs