Ripple announces $250 million fund to support NFT projects on XRP Ledger

Ripple wants to bring the NFT hype to the XRP Ledger. The company announced Wednesday a “creator fund” worth $250 million to support non-fungible token (NFT) projects building on the XRP Ledger.

Ripple said it will provide NFT artists and marketplaces with financial, creative, and technical support. To that end, the company has partnered with creative agency VSA Partners and NFT marketplaces mintNFT and Mintable (in which Ripple is an investor, along with Mark Cuban and others).

Minting NFTs on the XRP Ledger will be a cost-efficient process and drive utility through use cases such as “interactive experiences and fractional ownership,” said Ripple. The blockchain also has an in-built decentralized exchange where users can trade tokens for XRP or each other, said the company.

Companies rewarding projects building on their native blockchains has become a common trend, as The Block reported recently. In recent months, Ethereum challengers, including Avalanche and Terra, have rolled out rewards programs to attract decentralized finance (DeFi) projects on their blockchains. Often these challengers set aside funds in their native tokens. As for Ripple, it is unclear whether the company’s creator fund is denominated in dollars or XRP. The Block has reached out to Ripple and will update this story should we hear back.