According to Foresight News, Ripple has made significant announcements this week in South Korea and Japan. Firstly, Ripple revealed that metaverse startup Futureverse has partnered with Ripple Custody to securely manage its assets. Futureverse has adopted the XRPL NFT standard, uses XRP as the gas token on its Root network, and is integrated with the XRPL DEX to provide network liquidity.

Additionally, Ripple and the XRP community are committed to enhancing the XRPL ecosystem by 2025 through the XRPL EVM sidechain, which is already in progress. This initiative aims to introduce new programmability, including smart contracts, and explore native functionalities on the XRPL mainnet.

Furthermore, Ripple's University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) has added Yonsei University in South Korea as its 58th global partner. The UBRI program has invested over $60 million to support academic research through strategic support, technical resources, and grants.