XRPL Korea Concludes KFIP 2026 With Demo Day in Seoul

Catalyze, the operator of XRPL Korea, said Tuesday that the Korea Fintech Innovation Program 2026, a digital-asset acceleration program co-hosted with Seoul Fintech Lab, wrapped up with a demo day on June 25 at IFC Two in Seoul's Yeouido district.

KFIP 2026 is designed to discover and foster fintech and blockchain projects built on the XRP Ledger, or XRPL. This year, 75 companies and 53 individuals applied to participate. Twelve teams advanced to the finals and presented projects focused on global payments and foreign exchange, credit and trade finance, collateral and liquidity, and artificial intelligence-based finance.

Ripple was the event's main sponsor. Other partners included Toss, the Korea Fintech Industry Association, Bae, Kim & Lee, IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, Hana Bank, DB Insurance and Squid. The judging panel included officials from Ripple, Catalyze, Toss, the Korea Fintech Industry Association, Hashed and ITCEN CREDER.

The grand prize went to RiskX, which is developing infrastructure for issuing and managing financial products on XRPL. Transpharmer won the top excellence award, while KAB Labs received the excellence award. The grand prize and top excellence award winners will receive one year of free legal advisory services from Bae, Kim & Lee and invitations to Swell 2026, a global finance and blockchain conference set to be held in New York in October.

Koo Jung-tae, head of growth at Catalyze, said the program reaffirmed the potential of South Korea's fintech builders. Catalyze will continue to support overseas expansion and global collaboration so projects developed through KFIP can stay competitive in global markets, he added.