Three Major Trends in the Web3 World: Real Assets, Artificial Intelligence, and Intellectual Property

Real World Assets (RWA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Intellectual Property (IP) are gradually becoming the three most promising development directions in the Web3 field.

In 2023, RWA sparked a wave of enthusiasm and has now entered a more refined stage of asset classification. In 2024, AI will fully explode, bringing significant market capitalization growth to related enterprises. The IP, once considered a "niche track," has been redefined as the "energy engine" of Web3 due to the rapid development of AI—it is both the source of content and may become the core structure of data assets. An asset management company has already listed IP tokenization as a key focus area in its Q2 2025 report.

What kind of chemical reaction would occur if these three fields are combined?

As a Layer 1 dedicated to building an open and programmable IP market, Story is attempting to provide an answer.

Recently, the Story ecosystem has been very active, with projects like MUSIC, Aria, and Emergence exploring multiple dimensions: from AI generation to on-chain rights confirmation, from music IP RWA tokenization to decentralized co-construction of franchise assets, a new world concerning IP creation, rights confirmation, splitting, profit distribution, and inheritance is gradually taking shape.

MUSIC: AI + Trending Topics = Tradable On-chain Music Assets

Against the backdrop of the explosion of AIGC, the issues of rights confirmation, ownership, and revenue distribution of AI-generated content have become increasingly prominent, especially in the field of music creation. The traditional music income path relies on platform distribution, which leads to slow payment and opaque revenue, making "there is a way to create, but no way to monetize" a common predicament for creators.

To address this pain point, Story announced that it has become the infrastructure partner of the AI-driven entertainment platform MUSIC, supporting the launch of its Bangers feature: users only need to mention the relevant account and attach a prompt word in trending topics on social media, and AI will automatically generate music or MV. Subsequently, through Story, on-chain registration, rights confirmation, and tokenization can be achieved, transforming it into tradable music IP assets.

Each IP corresponds to a token with asset attributes, built-in with a 1% transaction tax to incentivize original creators, secondary creators, and distributors; at the same time, creators can also earn revenue through licensing fees and profits from derivatives. The full-chain support of Story enables MUSIC to achieve for the first time a conversion path from popular topics on social media directly to on-chain assets, granting content immediate rights confirmation and monetization capabilities.

On May 28th, MUSIC officially launched the tokenized asset $DRIP for the music IP "Drip Drip" in collaboration with top DJs R3HAB and WUKONG, and initiated a 20% airdrop, having completed snapshots for Banger trading users, $MUSIC holders, and active addresses on Story.

Currently, $MUSIC supports one-click cross-chain from a certain public chain to Story, with platform transactions using Story's native token $IP as gas. MUSIC has also partnered with a certain music label to integrate over 1000 AI agents, promoting large-scale generation and distribution of community-driven music IP.

Aria: Aiming to bring music IP on-chain and unlock the long tail of the RWA track

On-chain RWA (Real World Assets) continues to grow. According to a certain data platform, as of the time of writing, the total market value of on-chain RWA has surpassed $23 billion, with a monthly increase of 6.4%. Although it currently mainly consists of US Treasuries, private credit, and commodities, franchise-type assets and other non-standard assets are becoming new focal points.

In recent years, music assets have gradually gained favor among institutions due to stable cash flow, significant long-tail value, and high returns. Large investment institutions are accelerating their layout: In 2021, an investment group invested $1 billion in a music copyright company to acquire music copyrights; in the same year, another investment company acquired a music royalty portfolio for $1.1 billion; in 2024, an asset management company provided $850 million to a music company to support its third issuance of music asset ABS.

Aria is the core protocol focused on non-standard RWA in the Story ecosystem, concentrating on music assets, and capitalizing song copyrights, performance rights, and future royalty revenues, providing users with access to participate in high-potential content IP.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) 2025 report, the global music industry's annual revenue is approaching $30 billion, with performance rights revenue doubling since 2010, becoming an important source of stable cash flow. Aria is also following this trend by transforming music IP into combinable and tradable on-chain financial assets.

Currently, Aria's asset portfolio includes works from several top artists, most of which have passed the royalty revenue decline period, with an average asset age of over 4 years, stable earnings, and low volatility; it also includes some new works from 2024 that have growth potential.

Aria integrates copyrights, performance rights, and royalty income through a Portfolio model to construct standardized asset packages, allowing users to participate in early issuance with stablecoins. This music IP assetization path effectively addresses the pain points of traditional music assets, such as poor liquidity, lack of transparency in revenue, and low IP utilization.

• SPV architecture: Embedding music copyrights into on-chain compliant entities, supporting partial tokenization for monetization, avoiding institutions being forced to sell out completely;
• Real-time royalty distribution: Through smart contracts, royalty income can be automatically allocated to relevant parties, eliminating traditional distribution delays and intermediary losses;
• Programmable IP Authorization: Allows for secondary creation and flexible commercial use, unlocking long-tail value (such as remixing, film scoring, etc.).

In the future, Aria will achieve liquidity, staking, and lending through the RWIP token. The current portfolio is expected to have an annualized return of 8-9%, and it is anticipated to return to a long-term average of 4-5% within three to five years.

Based on the Story protocol, Aria implements transparent asset management from off-chain to on-chain, injecting a content-driven new path into the RWA market for Web3, while also bringing new vitality to the financialization of music IP.

In addition, Aria launched a points system in early May to provide exclusive incentives for early users, and the $IP airdrop became available on May 22. Users who participated in the Aria Premiere Launch will be able to claim the IPRWA token $APL starting from June 25.

Emergence: AI + Blockchain, Reshaping the Logic of Franchise IP Production

In the traditional entertainment industry, IP is often dominated by centralized teams, making it difficult for contributors to receive continuous rewards. The sci-fi project Emergence in the Story ecosystem is attempting to break this model.

Launched by a certain company in collaboration with Story, Emergence is an open, decentralized "narrative sandbox" led by legendary screenwriter David S. Goyer (known for works such as The Dark Knight Trilogy, Blade, Terminator, and Foundation), supporting audiences, creators, developers, and even introducing the AI agent A.T.L.A.S. to participate in world-building.

Its content rights confirmation, authorization, and profit-sharing mechanism are entirely built on Story: users leave verifiable "authorial traces" on the chain, and the system automatically allocates profits based on content usage, ensuring that contributions receive sustainable returns. A.T.L.A.S. plays the role of "screenwriter partner," not only generating text and plots but also organizing interactions, integrating clues, and dynamically expanding settings, becoming an important part of building the worldview.

At the beginning of this month, Emergence officially launched the Codex mission, encouraging users to create content such as characters, artifacts, myths, and locations. As of the time of writing, users have generated over 30,000 entries for characters, settings, and worldviews. These user creations will be formally incorporated into the Emergence universe after community voting and review by Gao Ye. As this sci-fi universe ecosystem gradually unfolds, corresponding creators will receive ongoing rewards.

As a decentralized "laboratory" that integrates AI collaboration with IP market mechanisms on-chain, it provides a brand new "multi-agent collaboration" paradigm for the development of Web3 native IP.

The Composable Future of AI + RWA + IP

In MUSIC, popular topics become assets; in Aria, songs turn into bonds; and in Emergence, AI and humans co-create content civilization. Supporting all of this is the "programmable IP" infrastructure provided by Story - the underlying bridge connecting AI, RWA, and IP.

Currently, Story is hosting its first global online Buildathon of the year - "Surreal World Assets", focusing on the innovative direction of IP × AI × RWA, supported by several well-known investment institutions. This event is open to both developers and non-technical participants, with winning projects having the opportunity to showcase to investors and gain access to ecological resources, with a total prize pool of $55,000.