Story has partnered with Heritage Distilling, a US-listed company, to launch a $360 million $IP token reserve strategy, backed by top venture capital firms including a16z Crypto.

Story, a blockchain firm specializing in AI-native infrastructure and programmable IP, has partnered with Nasdaq-listed Heritage Distilling to launch a $360 million $IP token digital asset reserve program, backed by top investors like a16z Crypto, Amber Group, and Arrington Capital.
The initiative mirrors BitMine's past success, where its stock surged 30x after a similar Ethereum reserve strategy, marking a16z's first public company digital asset allocation.
Heritage will invest $82 million to purchase tokens from Story Foundation, which will repurchase $IP on the secondary market within 90 days to support the reserve plan.
$IP is Story's native token, enabling on-chain IP registration, smart contract-based usage terms, and monetization for AI and human interactions, with partnerships including Justin Bieber, BTS, and adidas.
Recent milestones include collaborations with Stability AI, Grayscale's $IP investment trust, and Poseidon's $15M seed funding for decentralized AI training data.
Story's CEO Seung Yoon Lee sees $IP as "digital gold," with proceeds from the token sale aimed at ecosystem expansion and market repurchases.
Heritage CEO Justin Stiefel highlights $IP as a strategic asset class for the AI era, backed by a team of crypto and tech experts, including former Google and Binance executives.
The Story Foundation emphasizes responsible governance, using all net proceeds for public market repurchases to align investor interests and boost Heritage's digital asset leadership.

Story, a blockchain company specializing in AI-native infrastructure and programmable IP, announced the launch of a $360 million $IP token digital asset reserve program with Nasdaq-listed Heritage Distilling Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: CASK). The transaction is backed by the Story Foundation and several top investors, including a16z Crypto, Amber Group, Arrington Capital, dao5, and Hashed.

The market believes this transaction is highly similar to the 30-fold surge in BitMine's (NASDAQ: BMNR) stock price within days of launching its Ethereum Digital Asset Reserve (DAT) strategy. Of particular note is that this marks a16z's first involvement in a public company's digital asset strategy allocation. It also marks the lowest market capitalization among Nasdaq-listed companies to introduce a digital asset strategy reserve, suggesting significant potential for future value creation.

To support the token reserve plan, Heritage will invest $82 million to purchase tokens from the Story Foundation, and the Story Foundation will use the funds to repurchase $IP in full on the secondary market within 90 days.

$IP is Story's native token. Story allows users to register intellectual property on-chain and flexibly set terms of use through smart contracts, enabling convenient trading and monetization of IP between humans and AI agents. The Story ecosystem has already facilitated the tokenization of hundreds of thousands of digital assets through applications like Aria and Ablo. The company has also partnered with music IPs from globally renowned artists such as Justin Bieber, BTS, BLACKPINK, adidas, and Crocs, continuously expanding the application boundaries of IP.

In 2024, Story partnered with Stability AI to introduce transparent authorization and compensation tracking to support open source AI model training; in the third quarter of 2025, Grayscale Investments launched the Story Trust to provide institutional investors with a regulated $IP investment channel; the Poseidon incubation project launched in July further expanded the field of decentralized training data to support AI scenarios such as robots, AR/VR, and autonomous systems. The project has received US$15 million in seed round financing led by a16z.

Seung Yoon Lee, CEO of PIP Labs and founder of Story, said: "Now is a golden moment for innovation in crypto, AI and the tokenization of real assets. As AI becomes more popular, we believe $IP will become the new 'digital gold' with enormous value potential. Story Foundation will use all proceeds from this token sale to expand the network scale and market repurchase to ensure the long-term consistency of the ecosystem." The launch of this reserve plan is also a disruptive innovation by SY Lee after successfully selling the US online novel platform Radish to Kakao for 500 billion won.

Justin Stiefel, CEO of Heritage, stated, "This transaction represents a breakthrough in the digital asset strategy for Heritage and the entire public company. As an industry pioneer for over a decade, we understand the unique value of intellectual property and view $IP as a new strategic asset class to drive growth in the future AI era."

This strategic transaction is also supported by a number of senior experts in the fields of encryption and technology, who will continue to provide professional guidance for Heritage's strategic development. 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 and Special Advisor to the Director, Arrington Capital)

Matt Shaw, Director of the Story Foundation, said, "Story's mission is to make intellectual property an investable, programmable asset, and this reserve program demonstrates our ability to do so at scale. This structure allows public market investors to easily invest in $IP through equity, without having to manage a digital wallet. The Story Foundation plans to use 100% of the net cash proceeds from this transaction for public market repurchases, demonstrating responsible governance and deep collaboration while also providing Heritage with a leading edge in the digital asset space."