Grayscale Launches Trust for Story Protocol to Tap Into $80T Intellectual Property Market

Grayscale has launched a new investment vehicle that gives accredited investors exposure to Story, a blockchain protocol designed to turn intellectual property (IP) into programmable digital assets.

The Grayscale Story Trust will focus exclusively on IP, the native token of the Story network, according to an announcement. The protocol aims to modernize the way digital and real-world content — from music and video to biometric data and AI training sets — is represented, licensed, and monetized across blockchain-based systems.

IP is currently trading at $5.94, up over 100% in the past month.

Story’s technology allows creators and companies to embed licensing terms, royalty rules, and attribution directly into smart contract-enabled NFTs. These programmable tokens are designed to enforce ownership and rights management automatically, eliminating the need for intermediaries. That includes scenarios like an artist distributing a track where remix royalties are coded directly into the file or a robotics company feeding sensor data into AI models with traceable usage rights.

The protocol is already seeing traction, with over 1.7 million IP-related transactions and more than 200,000 monthly users, according to the foundation. Applications range from content creators tagging their likeness in video footage to AI developers sourcing compliant training data. One initiative, Poseidon, helps feed real-world data into autonomous systems like surgical assistants and self-driving cars.

Grayscale, best known for its flagship Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), has been expanding into niche sectors of the digital asset market. This new trust joins a growing roster of single-asset vehicles aimed at offering institutional investors regulated exposure to emerging blockchain use cases.

Like other Grayscale products, the Story Trust will be open for daily subscription by accredited investors, but doesn’t guarantee secondary market trading. Past Grayscale funds have traded at premiums or discounts relative to their underlying assets, raising risks for some investors, while providing trading opportunities for others.