Ripple and UC Berkeley Introduce UDAX Program to Grow XRP Ledger Ecosystem
The post Ripple and UC Berkeley Introduce UDAX Program to Grow XRP Ledger Ecosystem appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Key Takeaways: The first batch consisted of nine startups that specialized in such areas as tokenized capital markets, decentralized insurance, and the creator economy. The teams that participated indicated an average of 67 percent increase in product maturity and 92 percent growth in confidence in fundraising after six weeks of pilot. Ripple recently reported that the first group of participants in its University Digital Asset Xcelerator, a joint program with the University of California, Berkeley, graduated. The program acts as a special channel through which blockchain ideas can be transferred out of a campus environment and into the financial market. The University Digital Asset Xcelerator (UDAX) has been unveiled by Ripple and UC Berkeley to liaise between early academic innovation and institutional blockchain implementation. Combining Academic Research and Market Utility The UDAX program was an expansion of the decades-old University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) launched by Ripple that has been funding academic research over the years. The new accelerator targets specifically those startups that are developed on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), who will receive technical support and mentorship by the Ripple engineers. The program tries to address the problem of the valley of death by matching student founders with industry veterans, since many promising blockchain projects do not have an institutional-grade business. In the course of the six-week intensive pilot, nine startups have been striving to perfect their business models and code. The curriculum ended with a demo day, hosted at the headquarters of Ripple in San Francisco, where the founders pitched their projects to 13 venture capital firms and developers of core XRPL. This was the bridge that helped to bridge theoretical research and guided it towards the practical needs of the crypto investment community. Practical Applications and Accomplishment Achievement Some of the startups in the cohort showed a…
Filed under: News - @ January 17, 2026 2:24 pm