Grayscale, the world’s largest digital asset-focused investment manager, on Thursday announced the launch of the Grayscale Story Trust, offering accredited investors exposure to $IP, the native token of the Story blockchain network.
The Trust, now open for daily subscriptions, is structured like Grayscale’s other single-asset investment vehicles. It will hold only $IP tokens and aims to give investors a way to participate in Story’s blockchain-based approach to intellectual property.
Blockchain for Programmable Intellectual Property
Story is a blockchain network designed to represent intellectual property, including music, media, personal likeness, and real-world datasets, as programmable, on-chain assets. The system embeds licensing logic, attribution rules and royalty flows into smart contract-enabled tokens, allowing for automated compliance and monetization.
According to Story, the protocol supports applications in artificial intelligence, creative content, and digital rights management. Use cases include registering, licensing, and trading IP for cultural and technical sectors. The network reports more than 1.7 million intellectual property transactions and over 200,000 monthly active users.
Projects built on Story include Poseidon, which integrates real-world data into AI systems such as robotics, surgical assistants, and autonomous vehicles.
Investment Risk and Market Uncertainty
Participation in the Trust is limited to accredited investors as defined under U.S. securities regulations. Grayscale noted there is no guarantee the Trust’s shares will be approved for secondary market trading. Even if approved, shares could trade at a premium or discount to the underlying asset value.
The asset manager warned that investing in the Trust carries significant risks, including volatility in digital asset prices and uncertainty over the Story protocol’s relatively new technology. Private placement securities are speculative and illiquid, and investors may lose their entire investment.
The World Intellectual Property Organization estimates that intangible assets — including intellectual property, data, software, brands and human capital — held by publicly listed companies worldwide are worth more than $80 trillion. Story’s backers view blockchain-based infrastructure as a means to make such assets traceable, enforceable, and tradable on-chain, but regulatory and market challenges persist.
