AI-native infrastructure and programmable IP blockchain Story announced a joint launch of a $360 million $IP token digital asset reserve plan with Nasdaq-listed Heritage Distilling Holding Company, Inc. (Nasdaq code: CASK). This transaction has the backing of Story Foundation and several top investment institutions including a16z crypto, Amber Group, Arrington Capital, dao5, and Hashed.
The market believes that this transaction is highly similar to the case of BitMine (Nasdaq code: BMNR) which saw its stock price surge 30 times within days after announcing its Ethereum digital asset reserve (DAT) strategy. Notably, this is a16z's first involvement in a publicly listed company's digital asset strategy allocation and it is the case with the lowest market capitalization among Nasdaq-listed companies to introduce a digital asset strategy reserve, indicating significant potential value space in the future.
To support this token reserve plan, Heritage will invest $82 million to purchase tokens from Story Foundation, which will use this funding to fully buy back $IP in the secondary market within 90 days.
$IP is the native token of Story, allowing users to register intellectual property on-chain and flexibly set usage terms through smart contracts, facilitating convenient transactions and monetization of IP between humans and AI agents. The Story ecosystem has already driven the tokenization of hundreds of thousands of digital assets through applications like Aria and Ablo, and has collaborated with globally renowned artists such as Justin Bieber, BTS, BLACKPINK, Adidas, and Crocs, continuously expanding the application boundaries of IP.
In 2024, Story will partner with Stability AI to introduce transparent licensing and compensation tracking, supporting open-source AI model training; in the third quarter of 2025, Grayscale Investments will launch the Story Trust, providing regulated $IP investment channels for institutional investors; the Poseidon incubation project launched in July will further expand the decentralized training data field, supporting AI scenarios such as robotics, AR/VR, and autonomous systems, which has already secured $15 million in seed funding led by a16z.
Seung Yoon Lee, CEO of PIP Labs and founder of Story, stated: "This is a golden moment for innovations in crypto, AI, and the tokenization of real assets. With the proliferation of AI, we believe that $IP will become the new 'digital gold', with immense value potential. The Story Foundation will use all proceeds from this token sale to expand network scale and market buybacks, ensuring the long-term consistency of the ecosystem." The launch of this reserve plan is also a disruptive innovation after S.Y. Lee successfully sold the American web novel platform Radish to Kakao for 500 billion KRW.
Heritage CEO Justin Stiefel pointed out: "This transaction is a breakthrough for Heritage and the entire digital asset strategy of publicly listed companies. For over a decade, we have been industry pioneers, fully aware of the unique value of intellectual property, and view $IP as a new strategic reserve asset leading growth in the future AI era."
This strategic transaction has also received support from several senior experts in the crypto and technology fields, who will continue to provide professional guidance for the strategic development of Heritage. The core team includes:
SY Lee (Founder and CEO of PIP Labs, Founder of Story)
Phil Blows (Co-founder of AQRU and B2 Capital Management, Chief Investment Officer candidate)
Ben Sternberg (CFO of PIP Labs, former CFO of Radish, Founder of Fexy Media)
David Lee (Former Google executive, former Chief Corporate Development Officer of 451 Media)
Erick Zhang (Founding Partner of Nomad Capital, former Head of Research at Binance and CEO of CoinMarketCap)
Ravi Kaza (CIO of Arrington Capital, Special Advisor to the Board)
Matt Shaw, a board member of Story Foundation, stated: "The mission of Story is to make intellectual property an investable and programmable asset, and this reserve plan reflects the ability to scale implementation. Through this structure, public market investors can easily invest in $IP through equity investments without the need to manage digital wallets. Story Foundation plans to use 100% of the net cash from this transaction for public market buybacks, demonstrating responsible governance and deep collaboration, while also bringing a leading edge in the digital asset field to Heritage."