Heritage Distilling Holding Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: CASK) has launched its new “IP Strategy,” becoming the first publicly listed U.S. company to center its reserves around the $IP token, the native asset of the Story blockchain.
Crypto strategy and governance shift
Heritage said Tuesday the move is “the first of many steps” in executing its plan to build a treasury anchored in $IP, giving public‑market investors exposure to Story’s programmable intellectual property economy.
The company announced a roster of high‑profile advisors and nominees to support execution:
- Phil Blows, Chief Investment Officer appointee (co‑founder of AQRU and B2 Capital).
- Ben Sternberg, Strategic Finance Advisor (PIP Labs CFO, ex‑CFO at Radish).
- David Lee, Board Member Nominee (former Google executive).
- Erick Zhang, Board Member Nominee (founding partner of Nomad Capital, former CEO of CoinMarketCap).
The appointments highlight Heritage’s pivot from a consumer spirits brand to a crypto‑focused vehicle giving equity markets exposure to tokenized IP.
Treasury Dashboard for transparency
Heritage also unveiled plans for a public Treasury Dashboard at ipstrategy.co, offering transparent metrics for investors. Data points will include share price, market capitalization, number of outstanding shares, holdings of $IP, current token price, IP per share, and NAV calculations. Price charting will be powered by TradingView with a 15–20 minute delay.
Management framed the initiative as a way for shareholders to participate in the AI‑era data economy without handling tokens directly.
Backed by $220M PIPE financing
In August, Heritage raised $220 million in private investment in public equity (PIPE) to fund its IP purchases. Participants included a16z crypto, Amber Group, Arrington Capital, dao5, Hashed, Mirana Ventures, Polychain Capital, Selini Capital, Syncracy, Neoclassic, Open World, and Stix. Cantor Fitzgerald and Roth Capital Partners acted as placement agents.
The breadth of investor participation underscores institutional recognition of programmable IP as an emerging asset class.
Why $IP?
Story, the blockchain behind $IP, launched its mainnet in February 2025 after raising $136 million from backers such as a16z, Polychain, and Samsung Ventures.
Its mission is to make intellectual property programmable and monetizable in real time:
- Creators and enterprises can register media or data on‑chain.
- Rights can be embedded directly into digital assets.
- Licensing and royalties become enforceable through smart contracts.
Heritage said $IP creates an equity‑based vehicle for investors to access the growing programmable IP economy across media, entertainment, brands, and AI training data.
According to Heritage advisory board chairman and PIP Labs CEO Seung Yoon “SY” Lee,
“Wall Street is beginning to recognize that IP is the gold of the AI era. First came Bitcoin as digital money, then Ethereum as financial rails. Now, $IP is emerging as the blockchain primitive for AI‑era intellectual property.”
Market context
The pivot comes amid growing recognition of intellectual property rights as a bottleneck for artificial intelligence. Analysts note that as AI companies require vast amounts of rights‑cleared training data, tokenized IP could unlock new revenue streams for both creators and financial institutions.
According to CoinGecko, the $IP token recently hit an all‑time high of $11.66 before settling around $11.20, up more than 30% in 24 hours.
Grayscale has also announced plans to launch a single‑asset trust tracking $IP, underscoring growing institutional interest around the token.
Tanya Petrusenko
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