$50B Asset Giant Grayscale Spotlights Story Protocol (IP)

Selected as a 'Top 20 Coin' alongside BTC, ETH, and SOL

"Institutional capital is flowing in" — Expectations grow for institutional adoption

Potential for mass adoption by securing global artist IP

Ranks No.1 in annual growth on Bithumb — ETF launch potential under watch

The blockchain-based intellectual property (IP) project Story (STORY) has been included in the 'Top 20 Cryptocurrency List for Q2 2025' announced by the leading US cryptocurrency management company Grayscale on the 26th (local time), drawing attention from the industry.

Grayscale is one of the largest investment management companies in the cryptocurrency sector, managing assets worth over $50 billion. Story has been listed alongside major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) on Grayscale's Top 20 Cryptocurrency list.

Story chosen by US Grayscale…Attention on potential institutional adoption

Grayscale's quarterly Top 20 list is considered an indicator for the potential launch of trust products and conversion to exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In fact, 9 out of the 20 assets included in Grayscale's list have already been launched as Grayscale Trust products, and among them, Bitcoin and Ethereum have been approved as the first spot ETFs in the US. Solana is also undergoing preliminary procedures for ETF conversion.

Grayscale is also pursuing ETF conversion for cryptocurrencies previously launched as trust products, such as XRP, Cardano (ADA), and Dogecoin (DOGE), which are not included in the list. Considering this trend, it is evaluated that Story also has the potential for long-term institutional integration. It is analyzed to be advantageous for institutional financial productization due to its real IP-based tokenization, copyright distribution, and derivative content revenue sharing structure.

Story is actually expanding its presence in the blockchain-based IP industry by securing various large IPs and expanding global partnerships. Reflecting this, the Story token 'IP' has shown the most notable price trend this year.

According to CoinMarketCap on the 28th, IP has risen by over 100% since its token issuance in February, ranking third in this year's growth rate. Especially on the domestic cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, it surged by about 135% after listing, recording the highest growth rate among the 40 cryptocurrencies listed by Bithumb this year.

Securing global artist IP...Aiming for 'large-scale adoption' through expansion of real-use cases

For example, Story has secured a large number of IPs from global artists such as BTS, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, BLACKPINK, Maroon 5, Miley Cyrus, and aespa through its subsidiary Aria protocol. The plan is to tokenize these mega-hit IPs as real-world assets (RWA) and distribute them on the Story blockchain to induce large-scale adoption.

The IP registration platform 'IP Portal' is also attracting market expectations. This platform, whose open beta version was released on the 25th, is a blockchain-based system where anyone can easily upload content and register IP. The IP Portal ranked first in Product Hunt's 'Top products launching today' ranking just one day after its open beta launch.

Story defines this platform as 'GitHub for IP' and plans to nurture it as an IP hub that creators worldwide can freely utilize.

Last month, it became the first among cryptocurrency projects to join the global digital content certification coalition 'C2PA (The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity)', drawing attention from the industry. C2PA is a coalition established by global big tech companies such as Adobe, Google, and Microsoft (MS), presenting technology standards to verify the creation and editing history of digital content and prevent the spread of false information.

The Story protocol has emphasized the practical applicability of blockchain by verifying the provenance of content and preventing forgery and alteration using distributed ledger technology. It is evaluated as a 'representative case of technology convergence' as the combination of Story's technology with C2PA's technical infrastructure enables simultaneous content reliability and copyright verification.

Story, which stands out in IP acquisition and technology commercialization, is analyzed to demonstrate strong competitiveness in the real-world asset tokenization (RWA) and intellectual property (IP) sectors highlighted by Grayscale. As a result, it is expected that institutional investors' interest and the possibility of institutional integration could gain more momentum.

Grayscale stated in an official report, "Story is a project aiming to transfer the $70 trillion IP market on-chain," explaining, "It has uploaded the music of global artists such as BTS and Justin Bieber on the blockchain and launched a blockchain and tokens specialized in IP." It further evaluated, "Story is a project providing an environment where companies and individuals can invest in, trade, and generate royalties from IP."