Ripple Funds UC Berkeley’s New Center for Digital Assets with RLUSD

• UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering has launched the CDA, backed by $1.3M in RLUSD funding from the Ripple UBRI.
• The focus of UC Berkeley’s center will be on establishing credible approaches to measure digital asset value. 

The Ripple (XRP) network has announced on X that it is deepening its ties with the University of California, Berkeley by committing $1.3 million in its RLUSD stablecoin to launch the Center for Digital Assets (CDA) at the university’s College of Engineering.

This initiative builds on a partnership that began in 2018 through Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), which has supported academic research, student programs, and blockchain innovation at Berkeley.

The new center will explore how blockchain and digital twin technologies can be used to model, value, and exchange physical assets in digital form.

Research Scope and Academic Collaboration

As part of the expansion, Ripple and the CDA are also introducing the Berkeley Digital Asset Accelerator (BDAX), a program designed to support growth-stage startups in the XRPL public blockchain ecosystem. Interest has already been strong, with 46 teams applying for just 10 slots in the first pilot cohort launching this October.

Berkeley’s report explained that research at the Center for Digital Assets will span a wide variety of projects, ranging from blockchain-driven studies to initiatives that build digital twins, virtual versions of real-world assets that can be examined, tested, assigned both present and future value, and ultimately traded in digital environments.

Over the last two decades, blockchain has driven the steady emergence of new asset forms, including cryptocurrencies, NFTs, tokenized assets, and CBDCs. The Center will draw on the combined expertise of UC Berkeley faculty and affiliated scholars alongside Ripple’s engineers and researchers. Together, they will collaborate on projects that generate advanced, open-source technologies in strategically important fields.

“Digital content has been part of our human experience and economic systems for decades. The overall mission of the center is to foster pioneering research, education, innovation, and entrepreneurship within the broader digital asset technology landscape.” Tarek Zohdi, associate dean for research at Berkeley Engineering and the new center’s faculty director, stated.

Farms, factories, semiconductors, and even forests can be recreated as digital models, enabling analysis, trade, and optimization in new ways. The center also aims to cultivate talent by giving students direct exposure to digital asset technologies and their applications, while supporting the ecosystem’s growth through startup incubation.

This news comes on the heels of a major shift at Ripple, with David Schwartz stepping back from his longtime role as Chief Technology Officer after more than ten years. CNF confirmed that he’s now serving as CTO Emeritus while also taking a seat on Ripple’s board of directors.

XRP is trading around $3.02, up 1.36% in the past 24 hours and showing a strong 9.56% gain over the past week. Analyst Javon Marks pointed out an inverse head-and-shoulders formation on the charts, which has broken above its neckline and confirmed support.

This setup, he says, could pave the way for XRP to climb toward $4.80, with the move potentially only just beginning.