IP Strategy Initiates Monthly Validator & Ecosystem Publication

GIG HARBOR, Wash., Nov. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — IP Strategy (Nasdaq: IPST) (the “Company”), the first company to adopt a treasury reserve policy centered on the $IP token, today released its inaugural monthly publication detailing its validator business performance and broader ecosystem developments for tokenized intellectual property. The report marks the beginning of a regular monthly publication cycle designed to give the investment community greater transparency into on-chain operations, yield generation, and ecosystem growth.

Validator Performance Overview

Since launching on September 18, 2025, IP Strategy’s validator has continued to perform at near-perfect uptime, contributing to Story network security and transaction validation.

Validator performance metrics for the period October 1 – 31, 2025 are as follows:¹

As of October 31, 2025, IP Strategy has staked 42.5 million unlocked $IP tokens, generating a cumulative 422,664 $IP tokens in validator rewards worth approximately $3.49 million in revenue based on their recognized cost basis.²

_______________
¹ https://staking.story.foundation/
² https://story.explorers.guru/validator/storyvaloper10pcegu86vpm0hlejj7zgd9nj6qrrt3yzjc04pc

IP Strategy also earns commission income from third-party delegations to its validator, offering external $IP token holders a secure, institutional-grade staking environment. Additional $IP tokens are expected to be staked in upcoming cycles as part of an ongoing expansion of validator operations. IP Strategy intends to publish regular updates on staking growth and network participation metrics by issuing monthly press releases.

Business Model Snapshot

IP Strategy’s validator business forms a core revenue driver for the Company:

1. Generates on-chain yield by validating transactions and securing the Story Network.
2. Earns rewards in $IP tokens based on stake weight and network uptime.
3. Receives commission income from third-party $IP token holders who delegate to the Company’s validator.

This dual revenue model, combining treasury yield and staking commissions, creates a sustainable and scalable income stream directly tied to the growth of the Story ecosystem.

IP Strategy’s validator business is expected to be highly margin accretive to the Company: staking its current 42.5 million unlocked $IP tokens, at an estimated blended yield of approximately 5.64%, has the potential to generate an estimated 2.397 million $IP tokens annually if the estimated blended yield remains at a consistent level. This would equate to approximately $9.58 million in illustrative potential annualized revenues, accompanied by an estimated fixed cost basis of $400,000–$500,000. With corresponding gross margins estimated to be above 95%, the self-staking validator business provides a scalable, recurring revenue stream that is expected to strengthen IP Strategy’s balance sheet and position it to capture additional growth as staking participation expands.³

_______________
³ https://story.explorers.guru/validator/storyvaloper1pnkpjrnfp707elg8dmmrncs0j6tf53n8e0s0k6

Story Ecosystem Highlights

The Story ecosystem is driving the shift of intellectual property onto the blockchain, transforming it into programmable onchain assets. As an AI‑native network, Story allows IP to be registered, licensed, and monetized in real time, forming the foundation of a programmable IP economy valued at roughly $80 trillion. Each new integration demonstrates growing adoption of the $IP token as the bridge between creative and capital markets. As the only public company aligned with Story’s $IP token, IP Strategy (Nasdaq: IPST) provides investors with regulated, first‑mover exposure to this expanding asset class.

• Seoul Exchange Selects Story for RWA Infrastructure: Seoul Exchange, one of only two licensed platforms in South Korea for unlisted securities, has committed to exclusively use Story’s Layer 1 blockchain for settling tokenized real-world assets over the next three years. This partnership opens access to Korea’s $450 billion crypto market and enables fully on-chain trading of cultural assets like K-pop royalties, games, webtoons, and patents, with transactions powered by $IP tokens.
• Grayscale Adds $IP Tokens to AI Fund via Portfolio Rebalance: In alignment with its AI Fund methodology, Grayscale sold existing fund components proportionally and used the proceeds to purchase $IP tokens, thereby adding Story to its fund lineup. As of October 3, 2025, the AI Fund’s portfolio now includes $IP tokens among its basket of AI-linked assets. This further validates Story’s programmable $IP token as a core infrastructure asset in the AI economy by significantly expanding institutional access to the ecosystem.
• Barunson Studio Launches nPLUG IP Platform on Story: Barunson, the studio behind the award-winning movie Parasite, is launching nPLUG, an intellectual property remixing and creative platform on Story, and will place its flagship intellectual properties on-chain. This marks a notable convergence of mainstream film/media with the programmable intellectual property ecosystem.
• Origin Summit in Seoul Delivered Cross-Industry Momentum: Held last month in Korea, the Origin Summit convened TradFi firms, entertainment executives, K-pop icons, and blockchain builders under one roof to explore the future of tokenized intellectual property and digital assets. The event underscored growing institutional interest in licensing, intellectual property monetization, and AI/digital rights frameworks.
• Verse8 Beta Gains Traction: Verse8 brings verified royalties and AI-driven creativity on-chain with Story. Verse8 hosts thousands of creators and logs over 800,000 monthly active users (MAU) – and will soon support two iconic Web3 IPs (Moonbirds and Azuki), both of which will be registered on Story’s chain.

Looking Ahead

IP Strategy plans to continue releasing validator and ecosystem updates on a monthly basis, maintaining transparency for stockholders and disclosing the ongoing performance metrics for its validator operations. As the Story ecosystem grows, the Company expects increased staking participation and transaction volume to further strengthen its revenue base and long-term value proposition.

About IP Strategy

IP Strategy (Nasdaq: IPST) is the first Nasdaq-listed company to hold $IP tokens as a primary reserve asset and operate a validator for the Story Protocol. The Company provides public market investors broad exposure to the $80 trillion programmable intellectual property economy in a regulated equity format. IP Strategy’s treasury reserve of $IP tokens provides direct participation in the Story ecosystem, which enables on-chain registration, licensing, and monetization of intellectual property.

Heritage Distilling Holding Company, Inc. is the registered corporate name of IP Strategy.

About Story

Story is the AI-native blockchain network powering the $IP token and making intellectual property programmable, traceable, and monetizable in real time. Backed by $136 million from a16z crypto, Polychain Capital, and Samsung Ventures, Story launched its mainnet in February 2025 and has rapidly become a leading infrastructure for tokenized intellectual property. Story allows creators and enterprises to turn media, data, and AI-generated content into legally enforceable digital assets with embedded rights, enabling automated licensing and new markets for intellectual property across AI and entertainment.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “possible,” “potential,” “seeks,” “will,” and variations of these words or similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any such statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the Company’s position as both a participant in and supporter of the programmable IP economy, the Company’s ability to maintain complete control over security and performance of its $IP tokens, the potential for the Company’s validator business to be a source of recurring revenue, the expected profitability and gross margins for the Company’s validator business, the expected yield for the Company’s staked $IP tokens, the illustrative potential annualized revenues and estimated fixed cost basis for the Company’s validator business, the Company’s balance sheet and growth prospects, pending and future arrangements with third parties that may stake their $IP tokens on IP Strategy’s validator and any commissions to be earned thereon, the future expansion of the Company’s validator and staking activities, the Company’s plans to provide regular updates as additional $IP tokens and revenues are earned through its validator infrastructure and the estimated size of Korea’s crypto market.

Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on IP Strategy’s current expectations, estimates and projections only as of the date of this release and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the Company’s digital asset treasury strategy and validator operations, the value of $IP tokens and $IP token price volatility, the legal, commercial, regulatory and technical uncertainty regarding digital assets generally, the treatment of crypto assets for U.S. and foreign tax purposes, expectations with respect to future performance, growth and anticipated acquisitions, any correlation between the Company’s stock price and the price of $IP tokens, the Company’s yield and capital management strategies and $IP’s potential. These and other risks concerning IP Strategy’s programs and operations are described in additional detail in its registration statement on Form S-1 initially filed with the SEC on August 26, 2025, as amended, its latest annual report on Form 10-K, subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual reports on Form 10-K, and any other subsequent filings with the SEC, as well as the supplemental risk factors included in Addendum A to the form of Subscription Agreement filed as Exhibit 10.1 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on August 11, 2025. IP Strategy explicitly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except to the extent required by law.

In addition, the estimated amount of $IP tokens to be generated annually through validator and staking activities, the estimated yield, the illustrative potential annualized revenues and the estimated fixed costs basis and estimated gross margins presented herein are provided solely for illustrative purposes and not a guarantee or forecast of future results. These estimates are dependent on a number of factors, any or all of which would change any actual results or gross revenues that may be realized, including but not limited to $IP token price volatility, staking participation, validator up-time, the number of other validators or staked $IP tokens the Company competes with in the network, the overall demand for validating services of the $IP token, the overall demand and operational dynamics of the Story $IP token blockchain, other network and market dynamics and any changes to the accounting analysis or accounting treatment for $IP tokens and $IP token rewards.

Investor Contact
(800) 595-3550
ir@ipstrategy.co