Today, Heritage Distilling (Nasdaq: CASK) announces a $220M in PIPE financing ($100 million in cash and $120 million in $IP tokens) to establish a $360M treasury reserve focused on $IP, the native token of the @StoryProtocol. We believe that IP is the next catalyst for blockchain’s mainstream adoption. This transaction is a16z’s first-ever investment in a public company’s strategic reserve. Details ↓

The transaction includes a $220M private placement offering from Story Foundation and leading investors, including @a16zcrypto. To kickstart the $IP treasury strategy flywheel, Heritage will allocate $82M of proceeds to purchase $IP tokens from Story Foundation at a fixed price of $3.40 per $IP token. Story Foundation will use 100% of this $82M net cash proceeds received from the token sale to strategically repurchase $IP tokens on the open market within the 90 days following the sale.