Heritage Distilling Raises $220M In PIPE Financing To Build $IP Token Treasury, Becoming First Nasdaq Company To Adopt $IP As Primary Reserve Asset

• Heritage Distilling Holding Company, Inc. announces a $220 million PIPE financing to establish a treasury strategy focused on $IP, the native token of the Story network.
• Heritage to allocate $82 million of proceeds from the PIPE financing to purchase $IP tokens from Story Foundation at a fixed price of $3.40 per $IP token.
• Story Foundation plans to use 100% of the net cash proceeds received from its $IP token sale to Heritage as part of this transaction to strategically repurchase $IP tokens in the open market within a period of up to 90 days following the sale.
• Story Foundation, the entity behind Story, the AI-native blockchain infrastructure for the $80 trillion1 IP economy, has partnered with Heritage to expand Heritage's activities in connection with the network.
• Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and Roth Capital Partners are serving as joint placement agents and financial advisors.

Heritage Distilling Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASK) ("Heritage" or the "Company") today announced the pricing of a $220 million private placement offering ($100M in cash and $120M in $IP tokens) with support from Story Foundation and other leading investors, including a16z crypto, Amber Group, Arrington Capital, dao5, Hashed, Mirana Ventures, Neoclassic Capital, Open World, Polychain Capital, Selini Capital, Stix, Syncracy Capital and others, to support the launch of a first-of-its-kind $IP token digital asset treasury strategy.

This transaction represents a strategic milestone for Heritage, making it the first Nasdaq-listed company to adopt $IP as its primary reserve asset. $IP is the native token of Story, a blockchain that enables users to register their intellectual property onchain and add usage terms via smart contracts, thus allowing humans and AI agents the ability to transact in and monetize IP simply and easily. $IP is used to pay for transactions on Story, meaning that if more and more users take advantage of the network's functionality, the token itself will become more valuable. $IP can also be used for yield-generating activities such as staking and validation. Heritage's strategic investment in $IP reflects a broader shift in how public companies approach strategic reserves – not just as stores of value, but as vehicles for growth, yield, and long-term alignment with transformative technologies.

Through ecosystem apps like Aria and Ablo, Story has already supported the tokenization of hundreds of thousands of digital assets, powering collaborations with artists, brands, and intellectual property from world-renowned names including Justin Bieber, BTS, Blackpink, Adidas, and Crocs. In 2024, Story partnered with Stability AI to bring transparent licensing and compensation tracking to open-source model training pipelines. In Q3 2025, Grayscale also launched the Story Trust, providing institutional investors with regulated access to $IP through a traditional financial product. Poseidon, an AI-native incubation launched in July, extends Story's infrastructure into the realm of decentralized training data, enabling rights-cleared datasets for physical AI like robotics, AR/VR, and autonomous systems. Through its partnership with the foundation behind Web3's first programmable, productive digital primitive designed for staking, licensing, and powering real-world AI workflows, Heritage gains early exposure to the tokenized IP economy while directly participating in its evolution.

This transaction is structured as a Private Investment in Public Equity ("PIPE") offering involving a token exchange component. Heritage is expected to raise $100M via the sale of common stock and/or pre-funded warrants to purchase shares of common stock. In addition, Heritage will issue shares of common stock and/or pre-funded warrants to purchase shares of common stock in exchange for $IP tokens contributed from the Story Foundation at a fixed price of $3.40 per $IP token, helping to increase the number of tokens held in the Company's treasury reserve on day one.

Story Foundation selected Heritage as its first public partner to help grow the $IP ecosystem. In addition, key strategic partners will contribute additional $IP tokens to Heritage in exchange for common stock and/or pre-funded warrants to purchase shares of common stock. At the close of the transaction, the Heritage treasury reserve is expected to receive and hold approximately 52.5 million $IP tokens with a market value of approximately $361 million (calculated based on the closing price of the $IP tokens of $6.8785 on August 10, 2025, as reported by CoinMarketCap.com).