Aria Protocol tokenization: $61 trillion IP! Music copyrights become tradable assets.

Aria Protocol is the first protocol focused on tokenizing intellectual property (IP) and real-world assets, built on the Story blockchain. Its market valuation is estimated at up to $61 trillion, covering music catalogs, movie rights, patents, trademarks, and more. Aria Protocol introduces IPRWA tokens—Intellectual Property Real-World Assets—to unlock liquidity in markets that are currently illiquid and enable partial ownership.

What is Aria Protocol? Turning Cultural Assets into Financial Instruments

Intellectual property (IP) is the essence of knowledge and creativity. From the songs we stream to the shows we binge-watch, IP shapes our cultural experiences and drives industry growth. Despite being one of the most valuable asset classes globally, IP has remained locked within outdated systems—until now. Aria Protocol was created to address this challenge.

Converting real-world assets (RWA) into virtual, decentralized tokens isn’t new. Many Web3 projects have attempted (with varying success) to tokenize real estate, commodities, financial instruments, or supply chain goods. But the most significant RWA—IP, a trillion-dollar asset class—has yet to be tokenized. It’s arguably the largest asset class in the world.

The estimated market value of intangible assets like IP is over $61 trillion—more than ten times the current size of the crypto market. The best part? IP isn’t just a valuable asset; it’s embedded in pop culture through art, movies, and music. With the rise of AI, the value of IP is poised to soar: it’s the core resource for training large AI models. Leveraging IP as a financial instrument lays the foundation for a new, thriving IP economy.

David Kostiner, co-founder and Chief IP Officer of Aria Protocol, states: “IP is one of the most culturally resonant and economically powerful asset classes in the world. From music catalogs and film rights to research data and AI training datasets, IP holds enormous potential value that can be unlocked through frictionless licensing, co-creation, and super-financialization.”

The Next Frontier in Blockchain Innovation: IP Tokenization

Blockchain innovation has already disrupted traditional systems. Bitcoin competes with gold and fiat currencies as a store and transfer of value. Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains compete with centralized platforms for executing transactions and events. DeFi tokens challenge stocks, bonds, and derivatives as new financial standards with tangible value. But what about IP?

In Web2, managing IP rights with financial tools relies on legal documents. The estimated value of IP captured solely in legal documents reaches $7.8 trillion, covering patents, trademarks, and copyrights across tech, healthcare, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Breakthrough drugs? Legal IP. AI models capable of performing economic tasks? Legal IP. Popular songs? Legal IP.

While legal documents hold all rights and mechanisms for IP value creation, the process is inherently inefficient. Today, monetizing IP involves manual negotiations between parties and lawyers, creating customized financial arrangements. This results in IP being monetized only once and only within that specific contract’s scope. Before a new agreement can be drafted for a different use case, others are unable to generate value from the IP. This P2P (peer-to-peer) model severely limits IP liquidity and value realization.

Aria Protocol and Story are changing this paradigm. Story doesn’t compete with legal documents but builds upon them, transforming the current P2P framework into a P2Everyone environment. By tokenizing IP, Story ensures that any IP asset can be licensed, traded, and monetized openly—while still maintaining legal protections, ownership, and attribution rights for the original owner.

This creates an advanced, open model for the financialization of IP, unlocking new opportunities for IP holders, investors, creators, and fans worldwide. Kostiner explains: “We’re building a pathway for IP to exist within the economic infrastructure—music rights, film IP, and foundational research can flow through markets transparently and programmatically like stablecoins. If we succeed, cultural and scientific assets won’t sit idle in legal vaults—they’ll be structured, revenue-generating assets accessible to everyone.”

Fan Economy and Automated Royalties Distribution

Imagine owning a small share of royalties from a flagship music catalog or song, and being able to co-create using the original components of iconic works. As a fan or investor, you can buy tokenized shares of these IP assets and earn royalties from streaming and licensing—based not only on current usage but also on any derivative works built upon that IP. That’s exactly what Aria Protocol enables: transforming IP into liquid, tradable assets on the blockchain.

Aria Protocol is the first protocol dedicated to tokenizing real-world IP assets and bringing them onto the chain in a fungible form. These assets—streaming catalogs, synchronization rights, brand IP—generate real-world revenue and are now embedded with smart contracts for composable on-chain utilities. Aria bridges the gap between IP and the financial ecosystem, unlocking opportunities for IP owners, consumers, and investors alike.

Built on Story, Aria Protocol introduces IPRWA tokens—Intellectual Property Real-World Assets—to unlock liquidity in previously illiquid markets and enable partial ownership. This innovation involves not just trading IP but engaging with it in entirely new ways. Through tokenization on Aria, IP becomes fractionalized (anyone can gain exposure to top assets), income-linked (tied to royalties and licensing), and programmable (allowing authorized creators to legally use IP to create derivatives, with smart contracts managing access, attribution, and monetization).

Three Core Features of Aria Protocol

Fractional Ownership: Anyone can buy tokenized shares of top IP assets, lowering investment barriers.

Automated Revenue Sharing: Royalties and licensing income are automatically distributed to token holders via smart contracts.

Programmable Rights: Authorized creators can legally use IP to produce derivatives, with royalties automatically allocated.

Kostiner emphasizes: “Story is the foundational infrastructure enabling IP tokenization. Its architecture links legal enforceability with smart contract automation, allowing us to bring the integrity of real-world IP assets onto the chain. Without Story’s programmable licensing and authenticity layer, building Aria Protocol wouldn’t be possible.”

Unlocking Permissive Licensing and Remix Economy through Programmable Rights

Aria Protocol extends Story’s foundational vision by supporting programmable rights—on-chain conditions defining how IP can be used, licensed, remixed, or monetized. This means creators can retain control while unlocking new revenue streams, and licensed collaborators can legally remix and build upon IP, with smart contracts managing access, attribution, and royalties over time.

This enables a remix economy with built-in attribution, automatic royalty distribution, and composability managed by smart contracts—not legal bottlenecks. Royalties are recorded on tokens distributed among original IP owners, investors, and derivative creators. This mechanism fundamentally transforms traditional IP licensing.

In conventional settings, if Artist A wants to remix Artist B’s song, they must negotiate licensing agreements, royalty splits, and sign contracts—often taking months. On Aria, these conditions can be pre-programmed into smart contracts. Artist A gets on-chain authorization, creates the remix, and royalties are automatically split according to preset rules—completing the process in minutes.

Programmable rights are flexible, customizable, and asset-dependent, based on what rights holders choose to enable. Once enabled, these rights can generate royalties across a wide range of environments—from Web2 (merchandise, digital distribution, film & TV) to Web3 (on-chain games, NFTs, digital assets) and AI (training data, generative tools, controlled attribution).

Cross-platform royalty tracking and distribution are nearly impossible with traditional systems. When a song streams on Spotify, is used in TikTok videos, plays as background music in blockchain games, or trains AI models, tracking all these uses and calculating royalties requires enormous effort. Aria’s smart contracts can listen to all usage events in real time, automatically calculating and distributing royalties.

Three Beneficiaries of Aria Protocol

Aria Protocol aims not just to tokenize IP but to foster a decentralized, democratized cultural asset ecosystem. Fans and investors can turn their passion into financial returns by owning shares of their favorite works. This shifts fans from passive consumers to active investors. When you buy IPRWA tokens of an artist’s song, you not only own a portion of the rights but also earn royalties from streams on Spotify, Apple Music, and other platforms.

IP owners, innovators, creators, and researchers will receive fair compensation and deepen their engagement with audiences. In traditional record deals, artists often receive only 10-20% of royalties, with most revenue taken by intermediaries. Aria cuts out middlemen, allowing creators to sell IP shares directly to fans and retain a larger share of the revenue.

Investors gain access to a vibrant new market with unprecedented transparency, liquidity, and potential. Traditional IP investments require millions of dollars to acquire catalogs or rights. Aria’s fractional ownership enables everyday investors to participate with hundreds or thousands of dollars, earning royalties from top IP assets.

AI training and licensing can now be automated through programmable mechanisms, opening new revenue streams. When AI companies need training data, they can purchase licenses on Aria, with royalties automatically distributed to IP holders. This transparent, efficient licensing system creates new pathways for IP value realization in the AI era.