Avalanche just dropped one of the most exciting hackathons of Q4: Hack2Build: Payments x402, a two-week virtual hackathon focused on building the future of AI-native payments using the groundbreaking x402 protocol and EIP-8004.
Running from November 28 to December 12, 2025, this $25,000 prize pool event invites developers globally to create autonomous, internet-native payment systems on Avalanche’s high-throughput L1.
The x402 protocol, originally introduced by the Coinbase Developer Platform, resurrects the long-forgotten HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code and transforms it into a standard for seamless crypto micropayments. Combined with EIP-8004’s verifiable agent intents, builders can now enable AI agents to pay (and get paid) in USDC with a single line of code, no wallets, no sign-ups, and no friction.
Avalanche’s hackathon stands out in the growing wave of x402 events by leveraging Avalanche’s sub-second finality, custom subnets, and low fees, perfect for real-time agent-to-agent economies.
Key details:
- Dates: November 28 – December 12, 2025 (submissions close Dec 12)
- Format: 100% online, solo or teams (max 5)
- Prize Pool: $25,000 + potential Avalanche Foundation grants
- Judging: Innovation (30%), Technical Execution (30%), Impact (20%), Presentation & Avalanche Integration (20%)
- Perks: Direct mentorship from Avalanche’s InfraBUIDL(AI) team, grant interviews for top projects, workshop replays on x402 and EIP-8004
No prior Avalanche experience is required. Organizers are providing testnet credits, SDKs, and 1-on-1 office hours throughout the event. All projects must deploy on Avalanche mainnet or testnet and include a working demo + GitHub repo.
Registration is now live here. If you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to build in the “agentic economy,” this is it. Two weeks, $25K on the table, and a direct line to Avalanche funding, all centered on the protocol that could finally make micropayments work at internet scale.
