Ripple Labs will invest $5 million to strengthen blockchain education and research across the Asia-Pacific region.
According to a June 10 announcement on the company’s blog, Ripple is expanding its University Blockchain Research Initiative in Asia-Pacific with a new $5 million investment. The fund will support academic research and student-led innovation in six countries. This marks Ripple’s latest move to grow its influence in a region known for progressive fintech regulation and rapid digital asset adoption.
Through UBRI, Ripple is deepening ties with top institutions in South Korea, Japan, and Singapore, while forging new partnerships in Taiwan and Australia. The funding brings Ripple’s total UBRI contribution in Asia to over $11 million since launch, reflecting its long-term focus on building a pipeline of blockchain talent and real-world applications using the XRP (XRP) Ledger.
In Taiwan, Ripple is partnering with the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology to research real-world asset tokenization across XRPL, Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL). The grant will also support a student builders club and validator node on XRPL.
Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University received a grant to build an autonomous AI agent network on XRPL, while Ripple renewed its support for the National University of Singapore, where past UBRI funding led to the first university-based DAO in Asia.
In South Korea, a renewed $1.1 million partnership with Korea University will fund advanced blockchain research, alongside ongoing initiatives at Yonsei and Hanyang universities, including privacy-enhancing zk-SNARKs and layer-2 scaling technologies.
Australia’s Victoria University joins UBRI with a focus on blockchain curriculum development, while the Australian National University will continue research into blockchain law and smart contract platforms like Evernode.
Ripple’s UBRI expansion complements other recent Asia-Pacific ventures. These include the XRPL Japan and Korea Fund launched in 2024 to support local developers, a partnership with Web3 Salon in Japan to fund XRPL startups, and Ripple’s role as an anchor investor in HashKey Capital’s XRP Tracker Fund, Asia’s first institutional fund focused on XRP.
This year’s UBRI Connect event will take place at XRP Ledger Apex, with a pre-summit hosted at NUS, stressing the region’s growing role in global blockchain research and adoption.