Ripple Announces $5M Grant APAC Universities

Ripple Labs is set to commit an additional $5 million to help fund academic research and foster blockchain talent in the Asia-Pacific region.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Ripple Labs said it will be committing the additional funding via its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), which will fund universities across six countries, with new grants being allocated to universities in Taiwan and Australia.

UBRI has committed $1.1 million to Yonsei University in South Korea over a six-year partnership. In Japan, UBRI has committed $1.5 million to Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo. In Singapore, the total funding has crossed $3 million across Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore.

Professor Yang Liu of the College of Computing and Data Science at Nanyang Technological University, which is developing an AI agent on the XRP Ledger, said the grants have enhanced its research and development efforts. 

“With our current grant, we are developing an autonomous AI agent network on the XRP Ledger to create a transparent, modular, accessible, and collaborative AI platform harnessing blockchain technology. We believe this innovation will be pivotal in shaping the future of AI.” Liu said.

In Taiwan, UBRI is partnering with the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology to explore real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

“NKUST is excited about this new chapter, partnering with Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) to explore the potential of Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization on the XRP Ledger,” said Echo Huang, a professor at National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology.

In Australia, UBRI has bolstered its ties with the Australian National University and has teamed up with Victoria University, bringing its total allocation to $1.3 million across the Australian universities.

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In May, Ripple committed $25 million in RLUSD, a stablecoin backed by Ripple, to education nonprofit organizations in the US with the aim of providing better resources to American teachers.

A few months before that, in March, Ripple announced that it had launched a nonprofit organization called the National Cryptocurrency Association, which aims to improve crypto education in the US. 

Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that the firm will provide $50 million as a grant to the newly formed nonprofit organization.

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