Miami Beach, Florida — During Consensus Miami 2026, the EasyA hackathon felt less like a traditional crypto developer event and more like a live audition for the next generation of blockchain and AI-native startups.
Nearly 1,000 developers gathered together, some from established crypto ecosystems like Base and Solana, and others from companies like Microsoft and Google, all racing to build products around a recurring theme that kept coming up in conversations: AI agents.
Earlier this year, at the EasyA x Consensus Hong Kong hackathon, the growing interest in AI agents was already evident. At the time, organizers described 2026 as the "year of the application layer." Developers are increasingly shifting from infrastructure tools to other tools. Toward AI-driven consumer applications and autonomous agents.
For EasyA’s co-founders, brothers Dom and Philip Kwok, this evolution is precisely the point. What began as a series of small hackathons held in Austin, Texas, during the 2023 Consensus conference has rapidly grown into one of the most prominent developer events in the crypto space, attracting a vibrant community of passionate and highly skilled young developers.
They have a clear goal for this event. "We hope EasyJet will incubate a company valued at $1 billion," Guo Dongwei said in an interview with CoinDesk at the hackathon. "In our previous hackathons, we have already produced a company valued at $10 billion."
This success story has become legendary at EasyA. A Harvard team that pitched their project at an EasyA event later founded "Permission AI," which, according to the Guos, is now valued at approximately $10 billion. Another former participant, Axel, is developing a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin yield product.
Other alumni have reportedly been accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator, raised funding from top venture capital firms, and completed transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The message to developers at the Miami event was clear: this is no longer just a multi-day coding competition—it’s increasingly becoming a launchpad for venture-backed startups.
However, this year’s focus has clearly shifted to agent-based AI. Coinbase sponsored a challenge centered around x402, an emerging framework that developers are experimenting with for AI agent payments and interactions; meanwhile, Solana and Solana Mobile are encouraging teams to build mobile-first applications and user experiences.
Dom said: “Many developers are very excited about AI agent workloads,” noting that there has been a significant influx of venture capital into AI agent infrastructure startups recently.
Some projects already on display at the expo illustrate how developers are pushing the boundaries of this field. A team called Praxis is developing blockchain-powered drones that can be controlled via smartphone, which the brothers describe as “the next Palantir on blockchain.” Another startup is working on what they call “superintelligent AI,” a software designed to turn text prompts into physical 3D objects. “You can input a prompt like ‘make me a microscope,’ and it will actually create one for you,” said Phil. “It’s like the next step for ChatGPT—from conveying information to making things real.”
Winner:
Judges awarded projects that extended AI agents from chatbots to real-world collaboration, automation, and commerce, regardless of whether these were implemented through hardware, payment infrastructure, or consumer-facing applications. Across different sponsor tracks, the winning teams reflected a broader shift occurring in this year’s hackathon: developers are no longer just building crypto tools, but products designed for everyday use. Prizes for each track vary, and the specific distribution of awards within each category is still being finalized.
Initial capital ($50,000):
First place: FlyPraxis
Leading the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign is FlyPraxis, a real-time drone intelligence platform designed for military personnel. The team describes the project as a “real-time version of Palantir,” using AI-driven coordination and real-time battlefield intelligence to manage autonomous drone systems.
Second place: HIIE
HIIE ranks second with a platform that transforms text prompts into fully buildable hardware products. This startup uses AI agents to manage everything from physical computing and component procurement to 3D CAD generation and assembly documentation, aiming to compress months of hardware prototyping into a single workflow.
Third place: TribeWorld
Clan World ranks among the top three in the Kickstart track, joining a cohort of teams pioneering AI-native coordination and community-driven applications.
Solana Mobile Track (worth $30,000 + a Solana phone worth $75,000)
First place: Parabola
Parabola has taken first place in the Solana mobile赛道. Parabola is a decentralized prediction and valuation market built on Solana, enabling users to speculate on real-world events through a distributed AMM model designed for native mobile trading experiences.
Second place: Snakr
Snakr ranks second with an AI-powered food intelligence app that allows shoppers to scan products to identify potential health risks, FDA recall information, and ingredient issues. Users can also contribute missing product information and earn Solana-based rewards.
Third place: Rhythm
Rhythym, which secured third place, focuses on enhancing efficiency and usability by developing a mobile daily assistance app designed to help users with executive function disorders complete everyday tasks. The app integrates with Solana’s Seeker phone, Nova 2 Lite, and x402 infrastructure to create AI-assisted workflows.
Coinbase / AWS Track ($45,000)
First place: Dairy Prices API x402
The competition between Coinbase and AWS focused on AI agent payments and autonomous commerce. The winning project, Dairy Price API x402, built a pay-per-call commodity pricing and forecasting service that enables AI agents to access dairy market data without traditional API keys. Payments are settled directly in USDC via x402 on Base.
Second place: AgentPay
AgentPay ranks second, with its payment coordination system enabling users to approve AI agent transactions with a single click, while leveraging AWS-provided risk verification to ensure agents use funds responsibly.
Third place: Jiji
Giggy secured third place with its marketplace platform that allows users to hire AI agents to perform research tasks. Payments are held in a crypto custody account on Base, while the agents themselves can pay for premium API access via transactions based on the x402 protocol.
Runner-up: Chainlens
Chainlens focuses on trust and verification for autonomous systems, building a layer compatible with x402 that connects AI agents to verified APIs and only issues payments after responses have been authenticated.