Ripple partners with UC Berkeley to launch the Center for Digital Assets

UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering has launched the Center for Digital Assets (CDA), a new research hub for advancing blockchain and digital twin ￰1￱ Labs’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) has provided about $1.3 million in Ripple USD (RLUSD), the company’s US dollar-backed stablecoin, to fund the ￰2￱ to a statement shared by Ripple on Friday, the stablecoin issuer is “proud to partner with UC Berkeley on the launch of its new Center for Digital Assets.” The partnership builds on years of innovation through UBRI, which began supporting UC Berkeley programs in ￰3￱ asset demand necessitates UC Berkeley blockchain study A 2025 report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) projects that worldwide data will reach 175 zettabytes, with some estimates placing the figure closer to 181 ￰4￱ zettabyte is equivalent to one trillion gigabytes, or about 250 billion ￰5￱ Berkeley’s new center will focus on developing trusted methods for defining and measuring the value of digital assets, a step that researchers say is imperative for the development of future economic systems.

“Digital content has been part of our human experience and economic systems for ￰6￱ overall mission of the center is to foster pioneering research, education, innovation and entrepreneurship within the broader digital asset technology landscape,” said Tarek Zohdi, associate dean for research at Berkeley Engineering and the center’s faculty ￰7￱ Center for Digital Assets will bring together UC Berkeley faculty, academic affiliates, and Ripple engineers and researchers to collaborate on advanced, open-source technologies. We're proud to partner with @UCBerkeley on the launch of its new Center for Digital Assets: ￰0￱ From classrooms to real-world impact, this builds on years of innovation through our University Blockchain Research ￰8￱ out more about the… — Ripple (@Ripple) October 2, 2025 Joint projects will target pertinent areas of importance in blockchain and digital finance, built upon a seven-year partnership between UC Berkeley and Ripple’s ￰9￱ Labs suggested that UBRI has provided funding and resources for academic research since 2018, for studies in technical development, student engagement in blockchain, crypto, and digital payment ￰10￱ kickstarts new accelerator for startups Alongside the creation of the center, Ripple and the CDA are partnering on a new program called the Berkeley Digital Asset Accelerator (BDAX).

The project will support growth-stage startups in the XRPL public blockchain ecosystem. Forty-six teams have already applied for the first 10 spots in the pilot cohort, which launches in ￰11￱ initial program will focus on startups innovating within the XRPL blockchain, but future cohorts could include ventures working with digital twin ￰12￱ would also connect physical and digital systems in engineering, supply chains, and ￰13￱ to UC Berkeley, the $1.3 million in RLUSD funding will be used to support three primary areas of the new center’s ￰14￱ first pillar, Collaborative Research and Pilots, will use UC Berkeley’s research facilities and faculty expertise to innovate digital ￰15￱ and Talent Development will double down on educating students in digital asset and digital twin technologies, economics and new venture ￰16￱ will gain hands-on experience with tools and applications issued by Ripple engineers in areas like computer science, finance, and ￰17￱ last pillar, Ecosystem Growth and Global Impact, will expand academic, industry, and student communities and digital research to create sustainable blockchain ￰18￱ Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons praised the initiative, saying it is the type of transformative collaboration that leads to major breakthroughs in financial technology.

“I’m thrilled about this exciting addition to our university’s partnership with Ripple,” Lyons continued, “The new Center for Digital Assets is a fantastic example of the game-changing discoveries such collaborations ￰19￱ is no better place than Berkeley to incubate and launch innovations that expand our concept of what’s possible.” Elsewhere, Ripple minted 1.8 million RLUSD tokens on the XRP Ledger at the start of October, marking its first issuance on the network since September ￰20￱ latest mint follows a separate RLUSD issuance on Ethereum of around 8 million tokens that took place on September ￰21￱ smartest crypto minds already read our ￰22￱ in?

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