XRP Sets Stage for Demand Shock as Ripple and UC Berkeley Expand Real-World Use Cases

2026-01-18 04:20:16

Source: CryptoNewsNet Original Title: XRP Sets Stage for Demand Shock as Ripple and UC Berkeley Expand Real-World Use Cases Original Link: https://cryptonews.net/news/altcoins/32294607/ Ripple shared an insight on Jan. 16, outlining expanded collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley, “to Supercharge the XRP Ecosystem” by advancing real-world development and institutional use cases on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

The firm described the University Digital Asset Xcelerator (UDAX) as an extension of its University Blockchain Research Initiative, positioning the six-week accelerator as a structured pathway for translating academic innovation into production-ready deployment on the XRP Ledger.

The program opened with a launch summit in Berkeley and concluded with a demo day at Ripple’s San Francisco headquarters featuring remarks from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen and CTO emeritus David Schwartz, where founders presented progress to XRPL core developers, Ripple leadership, and representatives from 13 venture capital firms.

The announcement describes the fall 2025 pilot at UC Berkeley that brought nine startups onto the XRP Ledger across tokenized capital markets, decentralized insurance, payments, and creator-economy use cases. Ripple outlined hands-on execution during the program, with its engineers working directly alongside UC Berkeley faculty and industry mentors to move projects from pilot environments to live or near-mainnet deployment.

Several teams showed measurable traction during the six-week program. Wavetip migrated to XRPL mainnet and launched a Chrome Web Store extension, while X-Card onboarded more than $1.5 million in physical collectible inventory through merchant partnerships. Blockbima tripled its active user base, CRX Digital Assets expanded tokenized Brazilian credit volume from $39 million to $58 million using Ripple’s global payments network, and Blockroll advanced stablecoin-backed virtual cards for African freelancers.

Additional cohort outcomes included finalized equity tokenization models, early insurance revenue generation, expanded strategic partnerships, and sharper go-to-market execution. Ripple characterized the pilot’s cumulative impact as “strengthening the XRP ecosystem” by aligning academic research, founder execution, and enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure around real-world utility.

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