Grayscale's first public Story Trust is set to launch with a PNW distillery strategy.

Grayscale's first public Story Trust is set to launch with a PNW distillery strategy.

Less than two weeks after Grayscale unveiled its Story Trust, a new public IP treasury strategy is emerging, with support from the Story Foundation and top VCs. Pacific Northwest craft distillery Heritage Distilling Holding Company, Inc. and the Story Foundation have announced a $220 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing to create a treasury focused on IP, the native token of the Story network [1].

As part of the deal, Heritage will allocate $82 million from the financing to buy IP tokens from Story Foundation at a fixed price of $3.40 per token. Story Foundation plans to use the net cash proceeds from the sale to buy back IP tokens on the open market within 90 days. Upon closing, Heritage's IP treasury is expected to hold approximately 52.5 million IP tokens, currently valued at $312 million [1].

The PIPE transaction is expected to close on or around Aug. 13, subject to standard closing conditions. Major venture capital firms such as a16z crypto, Amber Group, Arrington Capital, dao5, Hashed, and Polychain Capital are among the investors backing this initiative [1].

Story is a Layer 1 blockchain network that facilitates the tokenization of intellectual property, with usage terms embedded at the smart contract level. IP tokens are used on the Story network to pay for IP-related transactions and can also be staked to earn yield [1].

This transaction marks Heritage as the first publicly-listed company to use IP as its main treasury reserve asset. IP is currently trading at $5.95, up 4.2% on the day and over 30% over the past month, according to CoinGecko [1]. Meanwhile, Heritage stock (Nasdaq: CASK) is trading at $0.57, up nearly 15% on the day [1].

Matt Shaw, Story Foundation Director, commented, "Story was built to turn intellectual property into an investable, programmable asset, and this reserve shows how we’re doing that at scale. Through this structure, public market investors can gain exposure to $IP via equity without navigating wallets or token infrastructure" [1].

The launch reflects increasing institutional interest in tokenized IP, driven by artists, brands, and AI platforms. It also highlights a broader trend of traditional finance companies investing in digital asset treasuries as crypto adoption expands in the mainstream landscape [1].

Less than two weeks ago, Grayscale, one of the largest crypto-focused asset managers, unveiled a new investment trust for IP, aiming to give accredited investors direct exposure to the IP token via a traditional fund product [1].

References:
[1] https://thedefiant.io/news/tradfi-and-fintech/heritage-distilling-to-create-first-ip-treasury-with-usd220m-pipe-deal