Story Protocol secures a16z's bet of 134 million! The IP revolution challenges an 80 trillion market.

Story Protocol is an on-chain intellectual property platform led by a16z, which raised $54 million and $80 million in funding in 2023 and 2024, respectively, aimed at establishing a global infrastructure for licensing and royalty automation. The platform was established in February 2025, with the goal of becoming the IP layer of the internet, and has registered 20 million intellectual property assets.

Story Protocol Architecture: Infrastructure for Programmable IP

(Source: SoluLab)

Story Protocol is the company behind Story Network, which has launched a dedicated first-layer blockchain that supports IP assets (tokenized works), programmable IP licensing (PIL), and a royalty module for real-time on-chain revenue distribution. “The purpose of creating Story Protocol is to enable intellectual property to be programmed across mediums,” Muttoni said. “Whether it's AI-generated data, virtual assets, or film intellectual property, creators should have a transparent way to license their works and profit from them.”

Supporters believe that this architecture lays the foundation for transparent traceability and composable authorization protocols. Critics question whether smart contract licensing agreements can withstand legal scrutiny in the absence of legal recognition. Currently, the on-chain authorization of Story Protocol serves only as a metadata layer and is not legally binding until the enforcement mechanisms of smart contracts are clearly defined.

The total value of global creative assets exceeds 80 trillion dollars, and on-chain intellectual property is gradually becoming the market layer connecting creators, businesses, and artificial intelligence platforms. Story Protocol currently has over 200 teams and has registered 20 million intellectual properties in the entertainment, gaming, and data application sectors.

Second-level settlement replaces quarterly payment royalty revolution

Traditional royalty systems, such as ASCAP, pay creators through multiple layers of intermediaries on a quarterly basis. The goal of Story Protocol is to modernize this process. “Today, royalties go through opaque middlemen and take months to reach creators,” Muttoni said. “On the Story Protocol platform, programmable royalties can be settled in just seconds, without the need for months—and they can flow seamlessly on a global scale. This is immensely significant for independent artists and emerging markets.”

However, as warned by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its 2025 fintech report, if regulatory and liquidity buffers lag behind, real-time tokenized settlement may exacerbate systemic risks. Instant payments are indeed powerful, but without corresponding safeguards, they may outpace regulatory efforts. The long-term success of Story Protocol may depend on its integration with the regulated financial system.

Advantages of Story Protocol Royalty Mechanism

Instant Settlement: Royalties reduced from months to seconds

Transparent Tracking: on-chain records eliminate intermediary black boxes

Global Seamless: Cross-border payments without multiple layers of conversion

The adoption logic of cultural moments rather than technological milestones

“On-chain intellectual property will not have just one turning point, as intellectual property is constantly evolving,” Muttoni said. “We considered this when building the Story Protocol, which is able to keep up with the times—integrating fields such as artificial intelligence, gaming, and Hollywood—so that creators can directly track their works and obtain authorization.”

He added, “The real turning point may not be reflected in absolute numbers, but rather in a cultural moment—such as remixing BTS's artwork into a game and realizing automatic revenue sharing through Story Protocol. The transformation happens when millions of people use on-chain IP without realizing that this is Web3.”

This viewpoint aligns with the “2024 World Intellectual Property Report” published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which指出 that global intellectual property capacity remains concentrated in fewer than ten economies. The report also指出 that the digital intellectual property market still relies on institutional integration rather than technological integration. The turning point for tokenized intellectual property may depend not only on product proliferation but also on policy coordination.

Legal Interoperability and AI Training Data Authorization

“Our current intellectual property system has collapsed,” Muttoni said. “Creators and businesses are fighting against artificial intelligence companies, but what we need is a technology-native framework under which intellectual property can be freely licensed and protected at scale. Story Protocol provides a rights track that organizations can integrate into, rather than compete with.”

The legal disputes between artificial intelligence developers and copyright holders expose a structural flaw: the speed of internet development surpasses the pace of infrastructure construction for protecting creative works. The World Economic Forum's “2025 Tokenization Report” points out that the development of such markets “is not linear, but rather phased.”

As the demand for licensed data from artificial intelligence continues to grow, new metrics may define the value of intellectual property—licensing volume, royalty accumulation, and source velocity. “Some of the most valuable intellectual property will be assets licensed for AI training,” Muttoni said. “The bottleneck for artificial intelligence is not in computing power, but in obtaining copyright licenses for data. The Poseidon project on Story Protocol allows anyone to license real-world data as intellectual property, thus creating measurable value between data providers, AI developers, and users.”

$IP Token: Productive Assets Rather Than Speculative Tools

“In the cryptocurrency market, reflexivity is normal,” Muttoni said. “But the intellectual property registered on the Story Protocol is closely related to real-world use cases. $IP tokens are used for licensing, staking, and governance - this is a productive asset related to creative activities rather than speculation.”

The CFA Association's analysis report for 2024 takes a more cautious view: tokenization may give rise to new asset classes, but it also faces valuation opacity and custody risks. The report believes that institutional investors will see IP tokens as an evolution of infrastructure rather than as speculative behavior—this perspective may help curb the speculation surrounding the Story Protocol $IP token.

Grayscale's product and research director Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary described Story Protocol as “linking blockchain coordination with AI model training.” She pointed out that Poseidon's model can transform everyday human activities into tokenized, copyright-licensed data for machine learning.

Simplifying User Experience and Empowering Creators

“For a long time, licensing and copyright management have been the exclusive domain of studios with lawyers,” Muttoni said. “Through our intellectual property portal, anyone can complete on-chain intellectual property registration in just a few minutes—no lawyers, no intermediaries, and no platform fees required. Our goal is to make the licensing process intuitive and convenient, rather than cumbersome and redundant.”

However, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office emphasized in a report submitted to Congress in 2024 that transfers on the blockchain do not alter intellectual property law. Transfers of copyrights and trademarks still require a written signed agreement. Programmable intellectual property is moving from concept to infrastructure, and the Story Protocol integrates automation, governance, and interoperability, making it a crossroads of culture and code. If successful, the Story Protocol could redefine how creative copyrights flow in the global economy.