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Ripple has teamed up with Japan’s Web3 Salon to back blockchain startups with real money and real support. According to Ripple, each project can tap up to $200,000 in grant funding over the next year. There’s also a 1 Billion XRP commitment aimed at helping builders on the XRP Ledger grow their ventures.

Grant Funding Aimed At Growth

Based on a post on X, the XRPL Japan and Korea Fund will pick early-stage teams in Japan that work on DeFi, tokenized real assets and digital payments. Winners will get as much as $200,000 per project. There’s clear focus on projects that show promise through strong tech and plans to scale. Ripple says funding decisions will hinge on growth potential and how well each team aligns with its goals.

Ripple and @Web3Salon, supported by JETRO, are launching a new partnership for Japan-based Web3 startups: https://t.co/TfcOf62srY

Open to early-stage teams building on the XRP Ledger with a focus on DeFi, tokenization, and payments.

Learn how this program will fuel the next…

— RippleX (@RippleXDev) June 9, 2025

Mentorship And Workshops For Founders

According to the Web3 Salon project, founders won’t just get money. They’ll also join hands-on workshops and one-on-one coaching. Mentors include seasoned entrepreneurs and policy experts. That means help with business plans. It means guidance on dealing with Japan’s rules. It also offers chances to sit at roundtables with regulators and potential backers.

Community Events Line Up Through 2026

Ripple and Web3 Salon will co-host four big events between now and March 2026. Each gathering will put the spotlight on standout teams. There’ll be pitch sessions. There’ll be panels with voices from both inside Japan and abroad. Investor meet-ups will give startups a chance to find more funding. And workshops will cover token rules and cross-border work.

Regulatory Support From JETRO

Japan External Trade Organization, or JETRO, is on board to smooth the path. Reports say JETRO will help connect fintech startups with government bodies. That’s key in Japan’s tightly regulated market. According to JETRO, this move aims to make it easier for new blockchain ideas to pass compliance checks and move forward without getting stuck in red tape.

Bringing Global Partners Together

Beyond cash and coaching, Ripple will open its global network to these startups. Based on statements from Christina Chan, Senior Director of Developer Growth at RippleX, teams will get access to Ripple’s customers and experts. That can speed up testing in foreign markets. It can also spark cross-border payment pilots or token launches with big names.

Why Japan Is In The Spotlight

Japan is known for strong rules and top technical talent. But its strict setup can slow innovation. According to Asia Web3 Alliance Japan President Hinza Asif, this tie-up aims to cut through complexity. It’s about giving founders the tools they need. It’s also about making sure blockchain projects fit local rules and global standards.

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In March of this year, Stone submitted a lobbying disclosure. He was hired in February to urge lawmakers to dismantle US tax provisions supporting the Justice Department Ver.

new: @RogERSTONEJR $600,000 was paid to the lobby in the first quarter @rogerkvera prosecuted crypto entrepreneur known as “Bitcoin yes.”

Roger Stone is about to terminate the “exit tax” provisions where ver was charged after waiving US citizenship https://t.co/lralogjbpl

– Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) April 25, 2025

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Trump’s ally Roger Stone was hired to help avoid prison time for tax evasion

Stone is targeting the “exit tax” law, which applies to Americans who waive citizenship. This is why the Ver is in the hot water for the $48 million tax that DOJ claims Ver.

Last April, DOJ requested VER multiple counts, including mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns. The agency alleges that in 2014, while preparing to be stationed from the US, it submitted false information about his crypto-holdings.

The allegations say Ver was unable to report capital gains after selling about $240 million in Bitcoin in 2017. Ver was arrested in Spain and released in May on 150,000 euro bail.

His release was conditioned on Ver surrendering his passport and reporting it regularly to Spanish authorities while he was fighting extradition to the US.

Legal push from Val, also known as “crypto yes.” It’s coming in Procrypto Pivot since the Trump administration returned to power earlier this year.

In January this year, Ver posted a video about his legal issues. He called it “weaponization of justice” under the Biden administration at the time.

Ver said he is appealing to President-elect President Trump. “If anyone knows what it’s like to be a victim of the law that promotes American ideals, it’s Donald Trump.”

President, I am an American and I need your help. With a commitment to justice, only you can save me @RealdonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/whvtz1m1gb

-RogerVer (@Rogerkver) January 26, 2025

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Ver files motion to dismiss his case – hopes for similar outcomes as Ross Ulbricht

Ver’s legal team has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. They argue that the tax laws cited in the indictment are “ambiguous and outdated and do not provide clear guidance to early adopters of codes.”

“This prosecution has to be over,” his lawyer wrote, accusing the DOJ of relying on selective evidence and misrepresenting private communications. Regarding Roger Stone’s role in the deal, he says he has not lobbyed Trump directly for pardons.

“I’m not lobbying executive officers, including the president,” he told The New York Times, making it clear that his role is focused on supporting the VER legal team in an advisory role behind the scenes.

Contrary to his “behind the scenes,” Stone’s website recently published an essay entitled “Why Roger Vere deserves a President’s amnesty.”

Stone was an incredibly controversial figure, and he himself received the generosity of the President in 2019.

A long list included. It lies to Congress and tampers with and disrupts the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

He was sentenced in prison for 40 months. However, Stone didn’t serve a day as Trump notified him of his sentence in 2020 and later granted a full pardon.

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Postroger paid Trump’s ally Roger Stone and paid $600,000 to support the ongoing legal battle.

Arizona-based Western Alliance Bank is notifying nearly 22,000 customers their personal information was stolen in October after a third-party vendor’s secure file transfer software was breached.

Western Alliance is a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporation, a leading U.S. banking company with over $80 billion in assets.

The bank first revealed in a February SEC filing that the attackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the third-party software (disclosed by the vendor on October 27, 2024) to hack a limited number of Western Alliance systems and exfiltrate files stored on the compromised devices.

Western Alliance found that customer data was exfiltrated from its network only after discovering that the attackers leaked some files stolen from its systems.

In breach notification letters sent to 21,899 affected customers and filed with the Office of Maine’s Attorney General, the company said it has since “determined that the unauthorized actor acquired certain files from the systems from October 12, 2024, to October 24, 2024.”

An analysis of the stolen files concluded on February 21, 2025, and found they contained customer personal information, including your name and Social Security number, as well as their dates of birth, financial account numbers, driver’s license numbers, tax identification numbers, and/or passport information if it was provided to Western Alliance.

“We have no evidence to believe that your personal information has been misused for the purpose of committing fraud or identity theft,” Western Alliance added, saying it’s also offering those affected one year of free membership for Experian IdentityWorks Credit 3B identity protection services.

“While we have no evidence that your personal information has been misused as a result of this incident, we encourage you to take advantage of the complimentary credit monitoring included in this letter.”

A Western Alliance spokesperson was not immediately available for comment when contacted by BleepingComputer earlier today.

Breach claimed by Clop ransomware

While the secure file transfer software compromised in the breach was not named in the breach notification letters or the February SEC filing, the bank is one of 58 companies the Clop ransomware gang added to its leak site in January.

The cybercrime group was behind a series of attacks exploiting a pre-auth zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2024-50623) in Cleo LexiCom, VLTransfer, and Harmony software patched in October, when the company warned customers to upgrade immediately.

In December, Cleo released security updates for a second zero-day (tracked as CVE-2024-55956) that the Clop threat actors exploited to deploy a JAVA backdoor dubbed “Malichus” to steal data, execute commands, and gain further access to the victims’ networks.

“This vulnerability has been leveraged to install malicious backdoor code on certain Cleo Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom instances in the form of a malicious Freemarker template containing server-side JavaScript,” Cleo explained in a private advisory.

While it’s currently unknown how many companies were breached in these attacks, Cleo claims its software is used by over 4,000 organizations worldwide.

Clop was previously linked to several other data theft campaigns in recent years, targeting zero-day flaws in MOVEit Transfer, GoAnywhere MFT, and Accellion FTA.

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