Ripple Labs Inc. announced today a $250 million fund to support the formation of nonfungible token projects on its XRP Ledger blockchain protocol.

The money will form a “Creator Fund,” which will give NFT artists and developers with the financial, creative and technical support needed to produce premium NFT and other tokenized crypto projects. Ripple said it seeks to accelerate adoption by attracting creators to participate in this technology.

The company also partnered with NFT marketplaces mintNFT and Mintable — which Ripple invested in — and creative agency VSA Partners to facilitate that support.

“While NFTs have opened the door for a tokenized future, actually navigating these concepts is a different ball game for many,” said Monica Long, general manager of RippleX. “By starting with marketplaces and creators, our fund seeks to take the guesswork out of NFT projects to unlock unexplored tokenization use cases on the XRP Ledger.”

NFTs have captured popular interest and headlines in the form of collectibles and artwork, with massive sales such as Beeple’s $69.3 million “The First 5000 Days” and Visa Inc. purchasing a CryptoPunk collectible for $150,000. However, Ripple also seeks to incubate more tokenization use cases, including interactive experiences and fractional ownership.

“NFTs have been a source of huge excitement for creators, enabling new ways to build communities and meaningful brand equity,” said Sarah Lent, chief marketing officer of VSA Partners.

In spite of the excitement around NFTs, and the massive boom in the market, many creators have shied away from them because of the technical expertise required to engage with them and their platforms and fears that they won’t gain traction.

Ripple said that its XRP Ledger blockchain will help resolve many of these issues with the help of its marketplace partners. MintNFT and Mintable will integrate with XRPL to deliver the NFT experience for creators and allow easy minting and exchange of NFTs created on the blockchain.

“Everything we do at Mintable centers around accessibility, and it’s time that we look at that holistically — creators of all disciplines and backgrounds need to have access to equal opportunities in the space,” said Zach Burks, chief executive of Mintable.

Image: Ripple