IP Strategy Makes An Initial Purchase Of Tokens Issued By Aria Protocol, Specifically $ARIAIP And $APL

IP Strategy (NASDAQ:IPST) (the "Company"), the first Nasdaq-listed entity operating a digital asset treasury strategy centered on the $IP token, today announced that it has made an initial purchase of tokens issued by Aria Protocol, specifically, $ARIAIP, Aria's native governance token, and $APL, the protocol's royalty-bearing, yield-generating asset.

IP Strategy's acquisition of $ARIAIP and $APL reflects the Company's strategy to expand its exposure to high-quality, real-world IP applications built on Story. As part of this strategy, the Company plans to continue supporting ecosystem projects that demonstrate real adoption and revenue potential, both through strategic collaboration and active market participation. Aria is a fast-growing platform that brings royalty-bearing music IP on-chain, starting with music enabling transparent ownership, automated licensing, and yield distribution. To date, Aria has tokenized catalogs from globally iconic artists including BTS, Justin Bieber, BLACKPINK, Madonna, and Miley Cyrus, marking one of the largest real-world deployments of music royalties on-chain.

• $ARIAIP governs the protocol's IP RWA infrastructure
• $APL represents a claim on music royalty flows across Aria-acquired catalogs
  
   

The APL token also introduces a second potential revenue-generating engine for IP Strategy, offering yield exposure to real music royalty flows and complementing the Company's recently launched validator business that has demonstrated high margins to date.

Together, these assets provide IP Strategy with selective exposure to one of the most commercially advanced IP Real World Asset (IP RWA) applications in the market, complementing the Company's core $IP reserves. The Company believes Aria's model showcases how real intellectual property can be turned into liquid, programmable assets which is a key pillar of the programmable IP thesis.

"Aria represents one of the strongest real-world demonstrations of what programmable IP enables," said Seung Yoon "SY" Lee, CEO and Co-founder of PIP Labs, Chairman of the IP Strategy Advisory Board, and original creator of the Story IP protocol. "By acquiring $ARIAIP and $APL, IP Strategy is strengthening its exposure to yield-generating IP assets that validate the commercial utility of the Story network."

"Having IP Strategy join Aria as a holder of both $ARIAIP and $APL represents a powerful vote of confidence in our long-term mission. Their support reinforces the role of Aria as a category-defining use case where real IP, real revenue, and real ownership converge," said David Kostiner, Co-Founder and Chief IP Officer at Aria. "IP Strategy's ability to connect regulated capital markets with onchain IP assets marks a new chapter for scaling this sector. Having a digital asset treasury (DAT) like IP Strategy join our holder base validates the strength of our model and expands the universe of participants who can engage with iconic real-world IP in a compliant way."

Aria just recently executed its public token launch, completing a highly successful community token offering in the IP RWA sector that was significantly oversubscribed and attracted broad participation across supported jurisdictions. This follows Aria protocol's rapid expansion of iconic IP rights, licensing flows, and creator participation, providing tangible validation of demand for tokenized IP assets.

This transaction between IP Strategy and Aria signals ecosystem maturity, commercial adoption, and growing institutional readiness across the Story-enabled programmable IP economy.