$1.3M gift from Ripple launches new Berkeley Center for Digital Assets

October 1, 2025

UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering is launching a new research center that will leverage blockchain and digital twin technologies in order to reimagine how physical assets are captured, valued, verified and exchanged in a digital world. Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) is providing the foundational funding for the new Center for Digital Assets (CDA) with $1.3 million in Ripple USD (RLUSD), Ripple’s U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin.

Over the past two decades, the amount of digital content created worldwide has surged. A 2025 report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that global data will reach 175 zettabytes, with other projections putting the figure as high as 181 zettabytes. One zettabyte equals a trillion gigabytes — roughly 250 billion DVDs.

When this digital content can be stored, exchanged and treated like something of value, it becomes a digital asset. A key goal of the new center will be to establish trusted methods for defining and measuring that value.

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

Research at the Center for Digital Assets will include a broad range of digital asset projects, from blockchain technology-based research to projects that create digital replicas, or digital twins, of physical assets that can be studied, tested, ascribed current and future worth, and ultimately bought and sold in the digital world. For nearly 20 years, the digital asset economy has steadily introduced newer digital assets based on blockchain technology, such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, crypto and tokenized assets, and Central Bank digital currencies.

Diverse, small and large assets such as semiconductors, cars, complex machines, planes, factories, farms and forests are digitizable with a variety of scanning methods, and the corresponding models of how they work has matured rapidly, creating opportunities to utilize those assets in ways that are not currently possible or practical.

Technological advances have already led to major advances in inventory control in warehouses, enabling more accurate matching of producers and buyers, more transparent pricing and a reduction of waste. Work at the Center for Digital Assets could push the technology further by not only providing information about whether an item is in stock, but allowing consumers to “open” and manipulate a digital representation of a product before buying it.

In addition, digital models of crops that are observable and transmittable could allow farmers to get credit from financial institutions more easily.

The center will integrate the expertise of faculty at UC Berkeley and its academic affiliates with Ripple engineers and researchers. Joint projects between UC Berkeley and Ripple will produce much-needed advanced, open-source technologies in strategic areas of importance. It builds upon a seven-year partnership between Ripple UBRI and UC Berkeley to advance academic research and student engagement, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments.

“As a founding member of Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative, UC Berkeley has played a pivotal role in driving digital asset innovation,” said Lauren Weymouth, senior director of University Partnerships at Ripple. “The launch of the Center for Digital Assets builds on that legacy and reinforces Berkeley’s leadership in shaping the next era of research, education and industry impact.”

Ripple’s UBRI support of UC Berkeley programs in digital asset technology and education began in 2018, but this latest venture will be the first time the company has helped launch a new research center on campus. In addition, Ripple and CDA are partnering on the new Berkeley Digital Asset Accelerator (BDAX) for growth-stage startups in the XRPL public blockchain ecosystem. Forty-six teams have applied for 10 spots in the pilot cohort program launching this October. Future cohorts will focus on startups working with digital twin technologies.

The funds will be used to support three pillars of the center:

• Collaborative Research and Pilots: Leveraging UC Berkeley’s world-class research facilities and academic expertise to accelerate innovation in digital technology.
• Academic and Talent Development: Fostering education and innovation in digital asset and digital twin technologies, digital asset economics and new venture creation. This includes working with faculty to provide students with hands-on learning experiences and access to industry-leading tools and real-world applications in engineering, computer science, economics, finance and entrepreneurship courses.
• Ecosystem Growth and Global Impact: Growing academic, industry and student communities, reinforcing digital research’s position as critical to powering our planet now and in the future.

By connecting the physical and digital worlds, the Center for Digital Assets promises to unlock new opportunities for ownership and trade. The center’s mission is to strengthen competitiveness through education, research, ecosystem building and leadership in digital asset innovation.

“I’m thrilled about this exciting addition to our university’s partnership with Ripple,” said Rich Lyons, UC Berkeley chancellor. “The new Center for Digital Assets is a fantastic example of the game-changing discoveries such collaborations foster. There is no better place than Berkeley to incubate and launch innovations that expand our concept of what’s possible.”

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