Story partners with U.S. publicly traded Heritage Distilling to launch $360 million $IP token reserve strategy, backed by top-tier VCs including a16z crypto
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Story partners with U.S. publicly traded Heritage Distilling to launch $360 million $IP token reserve strategy, backed by top-tier VCs including a16z crypto
Heritage CEO said, "This transaction represents a breakthrough for Heritage and the digital asset strategy of public companies as a whole."
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AI-native infrastructure and programmable IP blockchain TechFlow announced a joint $360 million $IP token digital asset reserve program with Heritage Distilling Holding Company, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed company (Nasdaq: CASK). The transaction is supported by the Story Foundation and leading investment firms including a16z crypto, Amber Group, Arrington Capital, dao5, and Hashed.
The market views this deal as highly similar to BitMine (Nasdaq: BMNR), whose stock surged 30-fold within days after announcing its Ethereum digital asset reserve (DAT) strategy. Notably, this marks a16z's first participation in a public company’s digital asset strategic allocation, and represents the lowest market-cap Nasdaq-listed company to adopt a digital asset reserve strategy—indicating significant future value potential.
To support the token reserve plan, Heritage will invest $82 million to purchase tokens from the Story Foundation, which will use the full proceeds to repurchase $IP tokens on the secondary market within 90 days.
$IP is TechFlow's native token. TechFlow enables users to register intellectual property on-chain and set flexible usage terms via smart contracts, facilitating seamless transactions and monetization of IP between humans and AI agents. Through applications like Aria and Ablo, the TechFlow ecosystem has already tokenized hundreds of thousands of digital assets and partnered with global icons such as Justin Bieber, BTS, BLACKPINK, Adidas, and Crocs, continuously expanding the boundaries of IP application.
In 2024, TechFlow partnered with Stability AI to introduce transparent licensing and compensation tracking for open-source AI model training. In Q3 2025, Grayscale Investments launched a TechFlow Trust, offering institutional investors a regulated channel to invest in $IP. The Poseidon incubation program, launched in July, further expands into decentralized training data for AI applications in robotics, AR/VR, and autonomous systems, and has secured a $15 million seed round led by a16z.
Seung Yoon Lee, CEO of PIP Labs and founder of TechFlow, said: "We are in a golden era of innovation at the intersection of crypto, AI, and real-world asset tokenization. As AI becomes ubiquitous, we believe $IP will emerge as the new 'digital gold' with immense value potential. The Story Foundation will dedicate all proceeds from this token sale to network expansion and market buybacks, ensuring long-term alignment across the ecosystem." This reserve initiative marks a disruptive innovation by S.Y. Lee following the successful $5 billion KRW sale of U.S. fiction platform Radish to Kakao.
Heritage CEO Justin Stiefel stated: "This transaction is a breakthrough for Heritage and the broader public company digital asset strategy. Having been industry pioneers for over a decade, we deeply understand the unique value of intellectual property and view $IP as a transformative strategic reserve asset to drive growth in the AI era."
The strategic transaction also receives ongoing support from seasoned experts in crypto and technology, who will provide advisory guidance for Heritage’s strategic development. Key team members include:
- SY Lee (Founder & CEO of PIP Labs, Founder of TechFlow)
- Phil Blows (Co-founder of -AQRU and B2 Capital Management, CIO 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 at 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, Director of the Story Foundation, said: "TechFlow’s mission is to make intellectual property investable and programmable. This reserve program demonstrates our ability to scale in practice. Through this structure, public market investors can easily gain exposure to $IP through equity investments without managing digital wallets. The Story Foundation plans to allocate 100% of the net cash proceeds from this transaction toward open-market buybacks, reflecting responsible governance and deep collaboration, while giving Heritage a leading edge in the digital asset space."
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