Prologue ------ It's so over ➡️ We are so back!

From the "failed South Korean bubble" to the "great on-chain Disney," Story has delivered a satisfactory answer to the market at the beginning of this long and torturous 2025. After the market rediscovered the value of its $IP, the magic book of the Story ecosystem has just begun to open.

The prologue of this epic story took place in 2023, where a16z saw ambition in these young founders. Their territory covers multiple fields such as DeFi, Infra, and AI, dedicated to fundamentally changing the operation mode of creativity and ideas through on-chain transparency and programmability.

Since 2023, Story Protocol has completed three rounds of large-scale financing, raising a total of $134 million.

Seed Round: Led by a16z crypto, raised $29.3 million.

Series A: Also led by a16z crypto, raised $25 million.

Series B: Successfully completed in August 2024, raised $80 million.

Rather than saying it has taken Disney's life, it is more accurate to say it has shattered the rules and recreated them. As the smallest unit of effective power on the Story Protocol, IP has become a cornerstone on this unique Layer 1, akin to Lego blocks.

Creation: What exactly is IP?

Before stepping into the Story ecosystem out of curiosity, why not ask yourself, what exactly is IP? How much do you understand its story? You can refer to a previous article by founder Jason Zhao titled "What is IP," where his conception of IP breaks the traditional stereotypes held by the average person.

For the term IP, there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. You might think that the NFT avatar you've used for two years is a good IP, while your cousin's child cries watching "Nezha 2" and believes it's a good IP. Another child in someone else's family is eager to apply for a patent after graduating with a PhD, considering it the IP that will feed him in the future. "Yes, all of the above," Jason Zhao says. My definition of IP is: Intellectual property is the atomic unit of creativity. Successful IPs are milestones that record human development, and the whole world is competing to create the next IP, continuing to write new stories.

In the past society, the moat between intellectual property and various industries was deeply entrenched until AI emerged and broke everything. The AI's ability to absorb creators' results as learning materials has led to the gradual disappearance of the familiar concept of IP. The most tragic situation is that creators cannot stop the spread of information, nor can they prevent their results from being digested as nutrients for silicon-based intelligences. Their vitality slowly withers away due to the disappearance of returns, as the development of AI is transformative, rapid, and unstoppable.

The Story Protocol and the creation of IP aim to protect the value of creators from being exploited and to provide a new model for creators to embrace the future of AI. It fully utilizes tokenization to distribute value among those participating in IP construction, with different tokens representing different types of rights.

Life: The Ecological Landscape of Story Protocol

Understanding Story's mission, we need to take a macro view of the ecological landscape to see the digital economic empire Story aims to build. It mainly consists of the following parts, akin to the elements of wind, water, earth, and fire that construct the world.

• IP Assets

• DeFi

• Infra/Tools

• AI

Next, I will elaborate on each one. Here are the currently live projects on Story:

DeFi

Trading and communication are forever the unchanging themes of Crypto.

Overview of the Sector

The composability of IP's DeFi ecosystem greatly exceeds that of traditional DeFi. Here, you can even evaluate your hot IP and use it as collateral for loans based on the cash flow it can generate in the future. The arrival of IPFi highlights the importance of holding quality IP assets. Because possessing quality IP assets means possessing quality cash flow. In less than a month since the mainnet launch, the DeFi ecosystem on the Story chain mainly consists of native DEXs, lending platforms, staking/yield aggregation, and derivatives.

1. Native DEX

PiperX, StoryHunt

Core Function: As the native decentralized exchange of the Story ecosystem, PiperX focuses on managing the liquidity of IP assets, aiming to create a relatively complete IPFi platform, while Story Hunt further supports the exchange between IP and NFTs.

Data Highlights:

PiperX

1. According to the homepage data, since PiperX's launch 18 days ago, the total TVL has reached $6.7M, with a total trading volume of $49.7M.

2. Compared to Story Hunt, PiperX covers a wider range of trading pairs for mainstream IP Tokens, with WIP, ZOO, WETH, WTF, vIP, and others ranking in the top five.

StoryHunt

According to official data, the total TVL has reached $6.18M, with a total trading volume of $42.2M.

2. Lending Platform

Unleash Protocol

Unleash Protocol is a fork of AAVE V3 and is the first lending protocol to leverage initial leverage on IP. The existing lending categories are relatively simple, including WETH, USDC, and IP. Currently, the Story Foundation has also launched a liquidity incentive program for Unleash Protocol, where borrowing can earn WIP as a reward annually.

Key Data:

As of March 3, 2025, the total lending market of Unleash Protocol has reached $20.01M, with a total lending amount of $10.14M and a total TVL of $9.88M.

3. Staking/Liquid Staking

Metapool

Metapool focuses on staking Story tokens, with a current staking APY of 9%. The TVL of the Metapool staking pool is 1.3M $IP, with a staking rate of 0.6% of the token circulation.

Verio

Verio is also a liquid staking solution for IP. You can stake IP as vIP on Verio, providing more flexible staking options, currently with an annualized return of 5.25%. According to Defillama data, Verio's TVL is $12.82M.

4. Derivatives

D3X.xyz

Provides leveraged perpetual trading with USDC on the Story chain as collateral, covering a wide range of trading pairs.

DeFi brings liquidity to the ecosystem, and in the early stages of Story, a liquidity infrastructure has already been established. The ecosystem is still in its early stages and lacks various stablecoins to expand tokenization scenarios related to IP. In the future, we also expect other cross-chain bridges to bring more liquidity into the Story ecosystem. In the short term, we will also see projects such as

• Shield Protocol's IP-related insurance (providing infringement/liquidation insurance for IP collateral based on on-chain data and AI risk control)

• Story Scroll (an L2 expansion solution for Story L1 using zk-Rollup)
  IPeg (over-collateralizing based on cash flow generated by IP, supporting automatic settlement and cross-border payments)

IP Assets

To take off, the key is to seize the opportunity.

Overview of the Sector

There is no time to mourn the gradually cooling MEME dream factory; what is about to hit the battlefield is the talented AI + IP. The IP asset track in the Web3 field presents dual innovations in technology and ecology, organically integrating AI, NFTs, on-chain DAO governance, and other modules, creating a complete value chain from creation, rights confirmation, trading to derivative series development. In an attention-driven blockchain economy, the speed of early ecological asset creation is directly proportional to wealth effects. Based on these three points, we can focus on the following in the IP asset-related sector: pioneers of IP emergence, IP issuance platforms, and IP markets for trading.

1. Native IP Projects

Meme Leader

The first project that catches the eye is the "leader" project Whatthefreg, which expands the connotation of IP through community co-creation. The project cleverly utilizes the grouping module of Story Protocol to manage the content of the derivative IP $WTF. The character of Freg The Vigilante is designed to mock and satirize false memes.

Other IPs

Globkin: Cute cartoon characters, with various combinations of NFTs and PFPs.

Emergence: A co-creation novel voted by Hollywood screenwriter David S. Goyer.

Konbini: The Revenant comic story IP has been released on the IP platform.

Mimboku: NFTIP character.

2. AI-Driven Platforms

Aria: An IP RWA protocol based on Story, aiming to achieve the tokenization of intellectual property assets through blockchain technology. The first issued RWA is a blockbuster from Justin Bieber's "Peaches." Many artists, including Blackpink, are expected to join the IP in the future.

Davinci AI: The first IPFi + DeFAI AI Agent program on Story. It has actively contacted the super popular AI agent star @luna_virtuals on Virtual, suggesting converting Luna's music into tradable IP assets on Story.

Solo AI / Loudr: Solo AI is a music creation platform on Story, allowing users to create music using AI and share it with the community. Its innovative bond curve can promote the monetization of AI-created music. It also features Story's native Agent Sona. Loudr is a music IP trading platform based on Story, promoting music collection and sharing through its token $LOUDER.

• mahojin: AI mixing platform, asset issuance.

• Playart.ai: Focused on IP content creation, user-generated AI works can be automatically registered as IP assets and connected to the IP Market for trading.

• IP World, Spotlight, Fun Overdrive: These three are all IP-related PUMP platforms used for asset creation activities, creating different meme character IPs.
  Lewis AI: AI-generated IP storyboards, transforming content into IP and spreading it within the community.

3. Trading and Liquidity Markets

Color / OKX IP Market: As the main trading platform of the Story Protocol ecosystem, it supports fragmented trading of IP assets (such as tokenizing 10% usage rights of a certain IP).

Infra/Tools

To build a house, one must first treat its foundation; once the foundation is solid, stones and wood can be added, making the house strong.

Infrastructure and tool products play a crucial role. They not only support the creation, management, and circulation of IP assets but also provide a secure, transparent, and efficient interactive environment for creators, developers, and users within the ecosystem. The data dimensions concerning IP are more complex than those of ordinary Layer 1, and we need more sensitive tools to help manage and quickly respond to the pulse of the IP ecosystem.

1. Oracles

Oracles are an important component of the Story ecosystem, ensuring the reliability of on-chain IP asset prices, royalty revenues, and other key data. Currently, the ecosystem mainly supports suppliers like Redstone and Pyth, providing data support for IP asset valuation, lending, liquidity, and other scenarios.

2. Cross-Chain Bridges

The IP assets of Story need to have high liquidity, and we may increasingly see creators and investors leading their AI and IP to trade, authorize, and monetize influence freely across different public chains. Currently, the ecosystem mainly supports cross-chain bridge solutions like Debridge and Stargate, enabling IP assets to flow securely and trustlessly across multiple networks.

3. Other Tools

In the Story ecosystem, various tool products provide key support for creators, investors, and developers, including on-chain data analysis, identity management, asset trading, and interaction entry points, ensuring the efficient management and secure circulation of IP assets.

On-Chain Data Analysis and Indexing

• Cielo: An on-chain data analysis tool that allows users to track specific addresses or address clusters and analyze IP trading and market trends.

• Goldsky: A high-performance data indexer that provides subgraph hosting and real-time data replication, enabling developers to quickly query and analyze IP asset data on Story Protocol.

• Kaito: An AI-driven on-chain data platform that indexes a wide range of Web3 content. It has launched the Story Yapper Leaderboard, showcasing influence and attention distribution within the Story ecosystem.

Identity Management and Account Abstraction

• Pimlico: ERC-4337 account abstraction infrastructure, providing smart account support for the Story ecosystem, enabling gasless transactions, batch transactions, session keys, and automation features.

• Privy: A certification and key management platform for Web3 applications, helping developers securely guide, manage, and protect user accounts.

• Dynamic: Provides embedded wallet and authentication solutions, integrating identity verification, smart wallets, and key management into a flexible SDK, enhancing the user experience in the Story ecosystem.

AI

God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth!" So God created man in His own image; in the image of God, He created him.

Overview of the Sector

In Genesis, God created everything in six days. Since the launch of the autonomous network, Story has also rapidly expanded its ecological landscape. Just as God created man, Story has set its sights on the creation of AI assets. In fact, AI should belong to a subclass of IP assets, but here, the author has singled it out because AI + blockchain is what the Story Protocol aims to address—the source of all conflicts.

1. DeFAI

There is a saying that blockchain is the currency system of AI. This notion has been expanded and validated on Story. Within the transparent and programmable framework of Story, the combination of AI and DeFi forms an ever-rolling economic flywheel.

• Mycelium Network: A Story-driven intellectual property (IP) infrastructure that supports cross-chain account transfers, management, and trading, combined with TSS to achieve decentralized applications for programmable IP.

• 1Combo: An open IP protocol on Story that supports decentralized AI-driven IP remixing, peer-to-pool IP trading, and on-chain IP tracking, allowing users to profit from IP trading.

2. AI-IP

Luna: Who can resist a cute intern? Not long ago, the popular cute AI intern Luna from Virtuals had a dream collaboration with Story. This is the first time we have an AI intern to expand influence. We have always fantasized about enhancing our project's influence, reaching more corners of social networks, and making more connections. However, humans cannot tirelessly output their opinions and spread their influence. This novel B-end to AI-end collaboration model will not be an isolated case in the future. As a native AI Agent on Base, Luna will have a larger stage on Story in the future.

Zerebro: Zerebro from the Solana ecosystem, as a multi-model nested AI agent, has realized the identity of a Validator on the Story Protocol. Since the Story Protocol is a breeding ground for AI growth, Zerebro's role as a Validator ensures that the growing AI can gradually transform into programmable on-chain assets. This adds a layer of practical meaning compared to Zerebro's usual erratic behavior and antics.

3. Others

• Sekai: A social story creation platform in the Story ecosystem, allowing users to create, read, and adapt stories using AI, providing high interactivity and composability.

• PlayArts: A decentralized creator economy and game interaction platform that allows AI agents to autonomously trade IP through Story's TCP/IP framework, providing creation and trading functionalities.

• Morphic: A platform empowering creators, filmmakers, and animators, helping them use AI to produce high-quality films and animations, and manage IP through Story.

• Bythen: A 3D virtual character creation platform in the Story ecosystem, providing creators with IP images and launching NFT products Bythen Card and Bythen Chip for monetization.

Perhaps most importantly, this new form of AI-IP is the crossroads where artificial intelligence and blockchain intersect: truly autonomous AI agents require blockchain as a foundation for interacting with value. On Story, AI agents will be able to learn all IPs on Story through training, and IP holders will be incentivized for storing their IP on Story, allowing them to profit from the massive gold rush surrounding the AI arms race. Here, code becomes law, and creativity becomes the property of a software-native, AI-driven future.

The story seems to be approaching its final chapter, and I believe you now have a preliminary understanding of the Story ecosystem, but your curiosity may lead you to ask, "Where is the fifth element of the Story ecosystem? Is there more?"

Yes, there is, my friend.

Future: The Fifth Element of the Ecological Landscape

In the movie, the fifth element Leeloo is created as a container; she possesses human appearance, human body, and even wisdom that gradually grows into humanity. IP is similar; as a container, what it carries is organic, vibrant, and communicable.

The Fifth Element of IPFi: Reshaping the IP Value System

On Story, IP is not just a carrier of culture, entertainment, and content creation; it can also be financialized, liquidated, and possess more multidimensional value realization methods. The emergence of IPFi allows IP assets to truly become a new type of financial production factor, enabling creativity to no longer be limited to traditional copyright revenues but to play a role in a broader financial ecosystem.

For example, AI data training sets, as a form of intellectual property, have extremely high reuse value. If a high-quality dataset can serve as a "parent IP" for training different AI models, it should rightfully receive reasonable returns. However, in the real world, many datasets are used for training AI without authorization, and the rights of data contributors are often overlooked. Through IPFi, datasets can be confirmed, and flexible revenue distribution rules can be set based on Story, allowing them to continuously create value within the AI ecosystem rather than being used without compensation.

In addition to data assets, the financialization of quality IP can further release cash flow value. IP should not just exist statically but can be a financial tool that generates continuous cash flow. Under the IPFi framework, the future revenues of IP can be broken down into different financial rights. For example, creators can use the expected cash flow of IP as collateral to obtain small loans, alleviating short-term financial pressure. This mechanism makes it easier for quality IP to gain capital support and allows creators to focus on the intrinsic value growth of IP, leveraging "value leverage" to mobilize more resources, thus forming a sustainable creative ecosystem.

If the independent growth of quality IP can create legends, then open collaboration between IPs can nurture the prosperity of the entire industry. The control of the traditional IP market is concentrated in the hands of a few companies, while the emergence of IPFi makes the production, management, and monetization of IP more decentralized, empowering a broader group of creators. IP can not only freely set cooperation models with other IPs but can also make early investment in IP possible by limiting cooperation seats. For example, an investor can secure 50% of the 100 limited cooperation seats for a potential IP project early on, and as the IP grows, the value of these cooperation seats will also increase. When the IP flourishes, investors can gradually sell their cooperation rights to gain long-term returns. This is not only an investment in potential IP but also an early support for young artists, scientists, and creators, allowing them to focus on innovation with more abundant resources, while investors can enjoy corresponding returns once the IP gains market recognition.

The essence of IPFi is to break the inherent pattern of the traditional IP market, allowing the release of IP value to no longer be limited to a single channel but to achieve more efficient flow and appreciation through financial tools. Story Protocol provides a decentralized IP infrastructure, making IP confirmation, revenue distribution, and circulation mechanisms more transparent and fair. Whether it is the confirmation of data assets, the financialization of IP, or decentralized collaboration models, IPFi is bringing a new development model to the IP industry. In the future, IP will not only symbolize creativity but also become an asset class that can be flexibly configured and invested in, benefiting creators, investors, and users alike.

The Fifth Element of DeFAI

In the long run, we look forward to a deeper integration of DeFi and IP assets, achieving smarter, more efficient, and automated operations under AI-driven financial protocols.

In an age of information explosion, human capacity to process information is limited. Faced with massive market data, complex financial logic, and ever-changing trading opportunities, individual decision-making efficiency often pales in comparison to AI's computational power. AI can quickly find key entry points from the vast information flow and execute actions immediately, making financial interactions no longer reliant on direct human intervention but driven by rules and AI. With continuous learning and optimization, AI can not only match human trading needs but also proactively adapt to changes in the market environment, evolving into a financial assistant that meets human expectations, even becoming a co-participant in decision-making, helping us make that divine decision. We have gradually seen AI agents like AIXBT, Alva, Sosovalue, and Buzz begin to integrate and analyze information flows, and it is expected that in the future, they will become our first reporters and commanders in the trenches.

The DeFi ecosystem consists of multiple core links, from asset custody, transaction matching, verification, and clearing to risk management. Each link must operate accurately to ensure the security and liquidity of the entire system. AI agents can not only take on these roles but also achieve automated operation around the clock with an omniscient and omnipresent posture. Whether monitoring market dynamics, executing arbitrage strategies, or managing capital flows and optimizing liquidity distribution, AI can autonomously complete these tasks and continuously adjust strategies to adapt to ever-changing market conditions.

When AI is deeply integrated with DeFi strategies, the entire financial system will enter a new stage. The reason for DeFAI > DeFi + AI is that AI can achieve strategy optimization and self-evolution. In the infinite data, they will continuously refine the strategies themselves. Whether it is statistical probability or the response to black swan events, they will be more rational than the hesitant you, the panicked you, and even the underperforming version of themselves.

The Fifth Element of AI to AI

In December last year, Story proposed a paper on the trading framework between AI and AI, exploring how agents can establish interactive and economic relationships on-chain. At this stage, we still focus on active users and trading behaviors on-chain, but if we only measure this ecosystem by human units, it may seem overly monotonous. In the future, an individual may possess multiple AI agents with different functions, and as this scale expands from one to one hundred, or even thousands, the resulting network effects will grow exponentially. This means that the direction of AI development will not remain at simple human-machine interaction but will gradually evolve into an on-chain agent ecosystem, becoming independent economic entities that collaborate efficiently in a decentralized network.

When AI is no longer just a tool for executing commands but can autonomously make decisions and trade freely, a new economic system will gradually emerge. Communication between AI is not just data exchange; it represents their ability to establish complex economic relationships, utilize resources, and collaboratively create value. In this system, AI can achieve cooperation based on the built-in protocols and cooperation methods of IP, reaching agreements with other AIs with high efficiency, signing smart contracts, automatically distributing revenues, and even quickly resolving disputes through on-chain governance mechanisms in case of conflicts of interest. This highly autonomous collaboration model enables AI agents to adapt to market demands independently, forming a more dynamic and flexible economic network.

Story Protocol is like a world inside a crystal ball, and AI is our multiple reflections in this world. Each AI can be an independent economic entity, continuously participating in transactions, optimizing decisions, and evolving in a decentralized environment. The future on-chain world will not just be a playground for human users but a thriving ecosystem for AI agents, a decentralized intelligent economic network that can grow and expand without human intervention.

Conclusion ------ Searching for the Fifth Element of the Story Protocol Ecosystem

At the intersection of the four elements of IP assets, DeFi, Infra/Tools, and AI, Story has already built the soil for the emergence of on-chain IP economy. However, what truly sustains and evolves all of this is the fifth element that cannot be defined solely by code, rules, or markets.

That is each one of you who is creating new IP, contributing imagination, and exploring the Story ecosystem.

Just like the ultimate secret in "The Fifth Element," the power of the four elements needs life to ignite it, and the future of Story Protocol also requires true creators and participants in the ecosystem to give it a soul. From the initial NFTs to AI co-created IP, and to the liquidity experiments of on-chain finance, this story is still being written, and every creator, developer, and explorer is a co-author of this IP epic.

The fifth element has already emerged, and its final form will be shaped by all participants in the ecosystem.