The UK Centre for Blockchain Technologies (UK CBT) participated in XRP Ledger Apex 2025, which took place from 10-12 June 2025 in Singapore. This flagship event, hosted by Ripple, brought together developers, fintech innovators, venture capitalists, and the wider XRP Ledger community in one of the world's leading technology hubs.

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Francesco Pierangeli, Deputy Director of UK CBT and Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham, led UK CBT's participation with two significant presentations. At the UBRI Connect Pre-Summit on 10 June, he contributed to the Policy Gap Panel, marking the launch of the Global Tech Regulation Lab. This initiative positioned universities as neutral forums where industry and policymakers could meet and collaborate. The panel shared successful strategies for approaching policymakers across different jurisdictions and provided updates on blockchain legislation developments in the UK.

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Professor Jiahua (Java) Xu, Associate Professor at UCL and working group member of UK CBT, moderated a crucial session on ‘Breaking Silos: Building the Future of Cross-Chain Interoperability’ on 12 June. This session brought together experts from Axelar, Flare, and Wormhole Foundation to discuss the future of blockchain interoperability.

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The UK CBT team showcased groundbreaking research across multiple sessions. Yimika Erinle, Research Associate at Exponential Science and contributor to UK CBT, presented on ‘Design Variations, Vulnerabilities, and Security Measures of Crypto Custody and Payment Solutions.’ Her research analysed 84 attacks from academia and industry, proposing secure institutional wallet solutions for wealth managers.

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Walter Hernandez, Research Fellow at Exponential Science and PhD candidate in Computer Science at UCL CBT, participated in two sessions. He contributed to ‘The Future of Decentralised Finance: Bridging Academic Research and Real-World Implementation on the XRPL’ alongside Professor Will Cong from Cornell University and Dr. Vytautas Vito Tumas from Ripple. Additionally, he joined the XRPL Commons Academic Breakfast, where UBRI network academics shared experiences and reported on latest developments.

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PhD candidate Yichen Luo from UCL's Department of Computer Science and contributor to UK CBT,  presented ‘Piercing the Veil of TVL: DeFi Reappraised,’ introducing a new metric called Total Value Redeemable (TVR) to address the double counting problem in DeFi and provide more accurate assessments of true value.

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This participation at XRP Ledger Apex 2025 demonstrated UK CBT's commitment to bridging the gap between academic research and real-world blockchain implementation. The presentations highlighted the organisation's expertise in areas ranging from regulatory frameworks and policy development to cutting-edge DeFi research and security analysis.

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The event offered unparalleled networking opportunities and early insights into upcoming developments in the XRP Ledger ecosystem, positioning UK CBT representatives at the forefront of blockchain innovation and policy development in Asia-Pacific.

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UK CBT's presence at this flagship event reinforced the organisation's mission to drive blockchain research, innovation, and collaboration across academia, industry, and policy circles both in the UK and internationally.

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