Cronos Opens the x402 PayTech Hackathon: A New Frontier for AI-Driven Payments

AI agents are beginning to step into roles that once belonged only to users: executing instructions, coordinating workflows and increasingly handling value on-chain. As these systems mature, they will need reliable settlement rails, programmable payment logic and infrastructure that can support automated economic activity at scale.

To accelerate this shift, Cronos is launching the x402 PayTech Hackathon, a global builder initiative that brings together developers, AI engineers and payments innovators to explore how autonomous systems can interact with real assets on-chain.

Rather than focusing on a single use case, this hackathon is about opening up the design space. How should an AI agent initiate payments? How does programmatic settlement behave in a multi-step workflow? And how can developer tools, data layers or MCP-style components make these systems easier to build and reason about?

These are the questions we hope builders will explore.

Why Cronos Is Creating Space for Agentic Finance

Over the past year, Cronos has been optimizing for a very different type of user—one that is fast, autonomous and computationally heavy: AI agents.

• Gas fees reduced by 10×

• Block times shortened to under one second

• Daily transactions up 400%

• Expanding integration surface across the Crypto.com ecosystem

• RWA-ready infrastructure designed for institutional-grade assets

• Support for x402-style programmatic payments

• Native compatibility with the Crypto.com AI Agent SDK

This convergence of high-performance EVM infrastructure, institutional connectivity and AI-native tooling creates a rare environment where intelligent systems can not only interpret intent but also execute it.

The hackathon is the first step in opening that stack to the global builder community.

What Builders Can Explore

Participants can tackle any layer of the emerging agentic finance stack including:

• AI-driven payment flows using x402

• Wallet automations and agent-triggered actions

• Data virtualization, agent runtimes or tooling for debugging agent workflows

• Cronos X Crypto.com ecosystem integrations

• RWA pipeline automation or institutional-grade settlement logic

• Consumer and enterprise apps embedding programmatic payments

• MCP-compatible tools and agent-readable data layers

Across all tracks, the focus is the same: designing systems that handle value with autonomy, precision and verifiability.

Prize Structure and Long-Term Support

The hackathon includes a $42,000 USD prize pool with categories spanning broad x402 applications, agentic finance, ecosystem integrations and developer tooling.

The top award, aligned with the Cronos Ignition Builder program, offers $24,000 USD, distributed as $6,000 upon completion followed by $2,000 per month for nine months. This structure is designed to support teams who continue to build and iterate on their project on Cronos EVM. Throughout the year, the winning team will also receive ecosystem visibility through interviews, spotlights and community amplification across Cronos and Crypto.com channels.

Additional track prizes include:

• Best x402 AI Agentic Finance Solution: $5,000 USD

• Best Cronos x Crypto.com Ecosystem Integration: $3,000 USD

• Best Dev Tooling or Data Virtualization Layer: $3,000 USD

Resources for Builders

Participants will have access to:

• Office hours with Cronos Labs and Crypto.com engineers

• Workshops on building with x402 and the Crypto.com AI Agent SDK

• A quick-start guide, sample code and integration docs

• Discord and Telegram support channels

• Cronos EVM deployment tools

Everything is designed to help builders get from idea to functional prototype as quickly as possible.

Key Dates

• Registration: 27 Nov – 11 Dec 2025

• Build Period: 12 Dec 2025 – 23 Jan 2026

• Workshops & Training: Throughout December (TBA)

• Winners Announced: Week of 2 Feb 2026

• Demo Day: Livestream (TBA)

Join the Experiment

The x402 PayTech Hackathon is an invitation to explore what happens when AI agents gain the ability to move value on-chain using programmable and verifiable infrastructure. Whether you’re building payment logic, tooling, RWA workflows, trading automations or something entirely new, this is an opportunity to shape the early architecture of AI-native finance.

Builders can register and submit their projects on DoraHacks here:
👉 https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/cronos-x402/detail