Ripple (XRP) and UC Berkeley Launch UDAX Accelerator to Build XRP Ecosystem
Zach Anderson Jan 16, 2026 17:42
Ripple (XRP)'s new UDAX accelerator graduates first cohort with 9 startups, including projects that tokenized $58M in assets and launched on XRPL mainnet.
Ripple (XRP) has officially launched the University Digital Asset Xcelerator (UDAX) in partnership with UC Berkeley, graduating its first cohort of nine startups building on the XRP Ledger. The six-week intensive program connected founders with Ripple engineers, Berkeley faculty, and 13 venture capital firms—producing measurable results including $58M in tokenized assets and multiple mainnet launches.
The accelerator emerges as XRP trades at $2.06 with a $125 billion market cap, following an 18% rally earlier this week driven by ETF inflows and Ripple's preliminary electronic money institution license in Luxembourg.
What the First Cohort Actually Built
The numbers from the pilot tell the story better than any press release. Brazilian credit marketplace CRX Digital Assets increased its tokenized volume from $39M to $58M during the program, validating institutional use of XRPL for cross-border liquidity. X-Card, which tokenizes physical collectibles, onboarded over $1.5M in inventory and locked in partnerships with merchant communities representing thousands of collectors.
WaveTip shipped to production—the Twitch tipping platform transitioned to XRPL mainnet and launched on the Chrome Web Store before the program ended. That's the kind of tangible output accelerators promise but rarely deliver.
BlockBima, building climate-risk microinsurance for vulnerable communities, tripled its active user base. EXFIL, a blockchain threat intelligence platform, doubled active users and built 50+ strategic relationships.
The RLUSD Connection
Several cohort projects are building directly on Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin infrastructure. Blockroll launched stablecoin-backed virtual cards targeting African freelancers, with CEO Sadiq Isiaka noting that RLUSD "enables financial access use cases such as stablecoin-backed debit cards that work globally."
This timing matters. Ripple executives indicated this week that RLUSD volumes could migrate from Ethereum to the XRP Ledger—potentially channeling more activity through exactly the kind of applications UDAX is incubating.
Program Metrics Worth Noting
Across the cohort, teams reported a 67% average increase in product maturity and 92% growth in fundraising confidence. The closing summit at Ripple's San Francisco headquarters featured demos to XRPL core developers and Ripple leadership, including co-founder Chris Larsen and CTO Emeritus David Schwartz.
UC Berkeley's involvement isn't cosmetic—the university produces more venture-backed founders than any other institution, according to Ripple's announcement. That pipeline could prove valuable as Ripple competes with Ethereum and Solana for developer mindshare.
What Comes Next
Applications are now open for the next UDAX cohort. Ripple is specifically targeting "mission-driven founders ready to scale their impact" on XRPL—a signal they're prioritizing use cases with real-world traction over speculative projects.
For XRP holders watching ecosystem development, the accelerator represents a structured bet on application-layer growth. Whether these startups gain meaningful adoption will determine if UDAX becomes a recurring program or a one-time experiment.
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