Billionaire couple gives San Francisco State University $25 million in XRP

A self-made billionaire couple gave San Francisco State University a $25 million gift, with a large portion of the donation made in XRP, making it one of the biggest cryptocurrency contributions to US higher education at the time. Chris Larsen, an SF State alumnus, and his wife Lyna Lam donated to the Rippleworks Foundation in April 2019. The gift established funds for the university’s College of Business and supported new initiatives focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and financial technology.

According to San Francisco State University, the XRP contribution was the institution’s first digital asset donation and ranked among the largest digital asset gifts made to a US university. The donation also led California State University to rename the College of Business the Lam Family College of Business. The couple had supported SF State since 2001, with previous contributions exceeding $800,000 for scholarships, education, science and business initiatives.

In April 2019, San Francisco State University President Leslie E. Wong announced the $25 million donation from Chris Larsen, Lyna Lam and the Rippleworks Foundation. The gift established the Chris Larsen and Lyna Lam Funds for the College of Business, intended to strengthen the college’s ability to respond to changes in the business sector. The university said the contribution would also help prepare students for careers as business innovators and entrepreneurs.

A large portion of the donation was made in XRP, which the university described as the first digital asset donation in SF State’s history. The gift was also among the largest donations made in digital assets to a US university at the time. The use of XRP distinguished the contribution from conventional university donations made through cash, securities or other traditional assets. At the same time, the funds were directed towards the university’s business education and innovation programmes.

The contribution also resulted in the renaming of San Francisco State University’s College of Business. California State University announced that the college would become the Lam Family College of Business in recognition of the Lam-Larsens’ long-term support and generosity. Chris Larsen, who graduated from SF State with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1984, and Lyna Lam had supported the university since 2001.

The $25 million contribution was part of the couple's broader record of giving. Larsen and Lam had donated more than $800,000 to scholarships, education, science and business initiatives across the university, in addition to their gifts to the College of Business. Their previous support included the Chris Larsen Scholarship Fund in the Graduate College of Education and funding for initiatives in the Biology Department within the College of Science and Engineering.

Part of the donation established the Lam-Larsen Fund for Global Innovation. The fund was created to bring students, faculty, alumni and outside experts together across disciplines to exchange ideas, explore entrepreneurship and work on solutions to practical problems. The university said the programme was intended to encourage global awareness while helping students develop an understanding of innovation and responsible business leadership.

The fund supported five new initiatives within the College of Business: the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, Emerging and Developing Economies Initiative, Financial Technology Initiative, Business and Education Technology Initiative, and Centre for Workforce of the Future. These initiatives were designed to expand opportunities for students and faculty to work across areas including entrepreneurship, financial technology, education technology and workforce development.

The university’s account of the donation also links the Lam-Larsen family’s support to Lyna Lam’s family history. The Lam family, including Lyna’s father Quang Lam, left Cambodia after he led his family’s escape from war and genocide. The family spent time in refugee camps in Thailand and the Philippines before immigrating to the United States and settling in the Bay Area.

The university said the Lam Family College of Business was named in honour of Lyna’s family at Chris Larsen’s recommendation. The $25 million donation was also a lead gift for SF State’s BOLD Thinking campaign. The campaign was more than 90 per cent funded when the donation was announced. The university said the contribution was intended to support its efforts in business innovation and entrepreneurship, while building on the Lam-Larsens’ previous financial support for scholarships and academic programmes.