According to Foresight News, Ripple announced key announcements released in South Korea and Japan this week. First, Ripple announced that the metaverse startup Futureverse has partnered with Ripple Custody to securely custody its assets. Futureverse has adopted the XRPL NFT standard, uses XRP as the Gas token on its Root network, and integrates with the XRPL DEX to provide network liquidity. Secondly, Ripple and the XRP community are committed to bringing new programmability to the XRPL development ecosystem in 2025 through the XRPL EVM sidechain (already in progress), including smart contracts, and exploring native functions on the XRPL mainnet.

Additionally, Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) added South Korea’s Yonsei University as its 58th global partner, investing more than $60 million in UBRI to advance academic research through strategic support, technical resources, and grants.