AM does not need to do so himself. Any big trusted shareholder can issue AM assets with Counterparty.
This is true. It would be awesome to see an Asicminer-direct-share-backed asset issued on Counterparty.
Maybe ThickasThieves would be up for the task?
This would be the first "Bitcoin blue chip" asset on a decentralized exchange. One small step for TAT, one giant leap for Bitcoin securities.
The code being released here is alpha-quality and under heavy development.