Grayscale takes aim at the $80t IP market with Story Protocol trust

Grayscale is expanding beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum with a trust focused on the native token of Story Protocol, which embeds licensing, royalties, and attribution directly into on-chain assets powering AI and creative industries.

On July 31, crypto asset manager Grayscale announced the launch of its Grayscale Story Trust, a single-asset investment vehicle offering accredited investors exposure to IP, the native token of Story Protocol.

The move marks Grayscale’s first foray into blockchain-based intellectual property infrastructure, positioning $IP as a critical building block for AI and digital rights management.

The trust, structured similarly to Grayscale’s other products, will hold IP as its sole underlying asset, providing institutional investors with a regulated pathway into what the asset manager sees as an $80 trillion market opportunity.

Why Grayscale is betting on Story Protocol’s IP token

Grayscale’s decision to launch a trust for Story Protocol’s IP token is a calculated move into what could become blockchain’s most consequential real-world application.

The asset manager is positioning IP as the backbone of a new intellectual property economy, one where licensing terms, attribution, and royalties are embedded directly into assets through smart contracts. This addresses two critical problems: the legal gray area surrounding AI training data and the inefficiencies of traditional IP management.

“Grayscale Story Trust gives investors exposure to a protocol shaping the foundational intellectual property layer for the information and AI era,” Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Head of Product & Research at Grayscale, said. “That includes not just creative content, but real-world data — the force powering one of today’s most advanced intelligent systems.”

The numbers support the move. According to the press release, Story Protocol already processes over 1.7 million IP transactions monthly, with use cases ranging from music royalties to datasets for surgical robots. Unlike speculative crypto assets, IP derives value from tangible demand: AI firms need clean, licensed data, while creators want immutable proof of ownership.

Grayscale said the trust is now open for daily subscriptions, though only to accredited investors, including individuals earning over $200,000 annually or entities with $5 million in assets. The asset manager indicated that secondary market trading could follow, pending regulatory approvals.

This mirrors the path of its flagship products, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF and Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF, which transitioned from private placements to publicly traded vehicles. As of July 30, the ETFs had amassed $21.2 billion and $4.25 billion in AUM, respectively, as of July 30.