GIG HARBOR, Wash., March 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IP Strategy Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPST) (the "Company" or "IP Strategy"), the first company to adopt a treasury reserve policy centered on the $IP token, today released its monthly publication detailing its validator business performance. The report is part of IP Strategy's ongoing monthly publication cycle designed to provide the investment community with greater transparency into operations and yield generation.

Validator Performance Overview

Since launching on September 18, 2025, IP Strategy's validator has continued to perform at near-perfect uptime, contributing to Story network security and transaction validation.

In December 2025, the Company announced the successful transition of its validator operations to a custodied, long-term staking configuration, marking a key upgrade to its validator infrastructure. One million tokens were transferred to the custodied account allowing for long-term staking, which, as previously disclosed, is expected to materially increase blended staking yields over time compared to prior flexible staking arrangements, while maintaining institutional-grade custody, security, and operational resilience. Results for February 2026 reflect the ongoing period following this transition, with actual yield impacts expected to become more visible in subsequent reporting periods.

Validator performance metrics for the period February 1 – 28, 2026 are as follows:¹

Metric	Feb 1–28 2026	To Date (Since Sep 18)	Notes
$IP tokens earned from staking	277,284.74	1,459,339.01	Validator rewards accumulated through self-staking
Validator uptime²	99.98%	99.8% (avg)	Industry-leading reliability
Fees ($IP) earned by our validator	14,965.05	78,889.52	Fees earned from tokens staked by the company and external delegators

As of February 28, 2026, IP Strategy has staked 39.9 million unlocked $IP tokens, generating cumulative validator rewards of 1,459,339.01 $IP tokens since September 18, 2025, worth approximately $5.62 million in revenue based on recognized cost basis.³

IP Strategy's validator business is expected to be highly margin-accretive to the Company. Based on an estimated blended yield of approximately 7.00%, staking its current 39.9 million unlocked $IP tokens has the potential to generate an estimated 2.79 million $IP tokens annually if the estimated blended yield remains at a consistent level. Tokens staked on a long-term basis in custodied accounts are currently seeing yields of up to 12%, which would be expected to increase the foregoing revenue assumptions. With corresponding gross margins estimated to be above 90%, the self-staking validator business provides a scalable, recurring revenue stream that is expected to strengthen IP Strategy's balance sheet and position it to capture additional growth as staking participation expands.

IP Strategy also earns commission income from third-party delegations to its validator, and expects additional $IP tokens to be staked in upcoming cycles as validator operations expand.

Treasury Yield Strategy Update

In addition to validator operations, the Company is also pursuing disciplined treasury income strategies. On February 23, 2026, IP Strategy announced the launch of a new treasury yield-enhancement program. In its first four weeks of testing, the program generated $167,324 of gross income without selling any of the Company's $IP tokens, earning an average monthly yield of 3.96% (or 59.37% on a compounded annualized basis). Under the program, IP Strategy deployed an initial allocation of 3 million $IP tokens into a structured covered-call strategy designed to generate enhanced recurring treasury income while maintaining exposure to long-term ecosystem upside.

Business Model Snapshot

IP Strategy's validator business forms a core revenue driver for the Company:

Generates on-chain yield by validating transactions and securing the Story Network.
Earns rewards in $IP tokens based on stake weight and network uptime.
Receives commission income from third-party $IP token holders who delegate to the Company's validator.
Operates a treasury yield-enhancement program designed to generate recurring treasury income while maintaining exposure to long-term ecosystem upside.

This multi-pronged approach, combining validator yield, staking commissions, and disciplined treasury yield strategies, is designed to create a sustainable and scalable income stream tied to the growth of the Story ecosystem.

Looking Ahead

IP Strategy plans to continue releasing validator updates on a monthly basis, maintaining transparency for stockholders and disclosing the ongoing performance metrics for its validator operations. As the Story ecosystem grows, the Company expects increased staking participation and transaction volume to further strengthen its revenue base and long-term value proposition.

About IP Strategy

IP Strategy Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPST) is the first Nasdaq-listed company to hold $IP tokens as a primary reserve asset and operate a validator for the Story Protocol. The Company provides public market investors broad exposure to the $80 trillion programmable intellectual property economy in a regulated equity format. IP Strategy's treasury reserve of $IP tokens provides direct participation in the Story ecosystem, which enables on-chain registration, licensing, and monetization of intellectual property.

About Story

Story is the AI-native blockchain network powering the $IP token and making intellectual property programmable, traceable, and monetizable in real time. Backed by $136 million from a16z crypto, Polychain Capital, and Samsung Ventures, Story launched its mainnet in February 2025 and has rapidly become a leading infrastructure for tokenized intellectual property. Story allows creators and enterprises to turn media, data, and AI-generated content into legally enforceable digital assets with embedded rights, enabling automated licensing and new markets for intellectual property across AI and entertainment.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as "aims," "anticipates," "believes," "could," "estimates," "expects," "forecasts," "goal," "intends," "may," "plans," "possible," "potential," "seeks," "will," and variations of these words or similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any such statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the expected impact of the transition of the Company's validator operations to a custodied, long-term staking configuration, the expected yield for the Company's staked $IP tokens, the expected profitability and gross margins for the Company's validator business, the potential for the Company's validator business to be a source of recurring revenue, the Company's expectation that it will stake additional $IP tokens, the potential for a structured covered-call strategy to generate enhanced recurring treasury income while maintaining exposure to long-term ecosystem upside, the illustrative potential yield of income from the Company's treasury yield-enhancement program on an average monthly basis and on a compounded annualized basis, the Company's growth prospects, the future expansion of the Company's validator and staking activities, the Company's plans to provide monthly validator updates, the Company's expectations regarding staking participation and transaction volume, the adoption, usage or growth rate of third party apps or programs on the Story blockchain, and the sustainability and scalability of the Company's multi-pronged business model, combining validator yield, staking commissions, and disciplined treasury yield strategies.

Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on IP Strategy's current expectations, estimates and projections only as of the date of this release and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the Company's digital asset treasury strategy and validator operations, the value of $IP tokens and $IP token price volatility, the legal, commercial, regulatory and technical uncertainty regarding digital assets generally, the treatment of crypto assets for U.S. and foreign tax purposes, expectations with respect to future performance, growth and anticipated acquisitions, any correlation between the Company's stock price and the price of $IP tokens, the Company's yield and capital management strategies and $IP's potential. These and other risks concerning IP Strategy's programs and operations are described in additional detail in its registration statement on Form S-1 initially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on August 26, 2025, as amended by Amendment No. 1 filed on October 16, 2025, Amendment No. 2 filed on December 12, 2025 and Amendment No. 3 filed on December 19, 2025, its latest annual report on Form 10-K, subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and any other subsequent filings with the SEC. IP Strategy explicitly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except to the extent required by law.

In addition, the estimated amount of $IP tokens to be generated annually through validator and staking activities, the estimated yields for its validator activities and its treasury income strategies, the illustrative potential annualized revenues and the estimated fixed costs basis and estimated gross margins presented herein are provided solely for illustrative purposes and not a guarantee or forecast of future results. These estimates are dependent on a number of factors, any or all of which would change any actual results or gross revenues that may be realized, including but not limited to $IP token price volatility, staking participation, validator up-time, the number of other validators or staked $IP tokens the Company competes with in the network, the overall demand for validating services of the $IP token, the overall demand and operational dynamics of the Story $IP token blockchain, other network and market dynamics and any changes to the accounting analysis or accounting treatment for $IP tokens and $IP token rewards.

Investor Contact

(800) 595-3550

ir@ipstrategy.co

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^¹ https://staking.story.foundation/

^² https://story.explorers.guru/validator/storyvaloper1pnkpjrnfp707elg8dmmrncs0j6tf53n8e0s0k6

^³ https://story.explorers.guru/validator/storyvaloper10pcegu86vpm0hlejj7zgd9nj6qrrt3yzjc04pc

IP Strategy Publishes Monthly Validator Update