Ripple has pledged over $5 million through its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) to support academic research and education across the Asia-Pacific region.

The funding aims to bolster talent development and innovation at leading universities, including Nanyang Technological University (NTU), University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Korea University, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST), Australian National University (ANU), and Victoria University.

This latest investment builds on UBRI’s earlier $11 million push into APAC and extends multi-year partnerships. In South Korea, Korea University received $1.1 million under a renewed six-year agreement. Japan saw over $1.5 million allocated to Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo. Singapore universities NTU and NUS were granted more than $3 million combined.

The grants support a variety of high-impact projects. NTU, for instance, is creating an autonomous AI agent network on the XRP Ledger, enabling transparent and modular agent-based systems NKUST in Taiwan will focus on real-world asset tokenization, exploring regulatory frameworks and cross-chain functionality with Ethereum and Solana support.

In Australia, ANU and Victoria University are exploring legal, policy, and technical aspects of blockchain and decentralized systems, including Evernode layer‑2 deployments and XRPL integration.

Ripple highlights APAC’s leading position in fintech innovation, supported by progressive regulation, a dense network of…