Solana Foundation Launches Global Cypherpunk Hackathon With $2.5M In Prizes And Accelerator Opportunities

In Brief

The Solana Foundation has launched the global Solana Cypherpunk Hackathon on Colosseum’s platform, offering over $2.5 million in prizes, pre-seed funding, and accelerator opportunities for innovative crypto projects.

Non-profit organization focused on promoting decentralization, adoption, and security within the Solana network, Solana Foundation announced the launch of the Solana Cypherpunk Hackathon. This global competition is being conducted through Colosseum’s online platform and will run until October 30th. Participants will have the opportunity to compete for prizes, pre-seed funding, and potential admission into Colosseum’s accelerator program. Colosseum’s venture fund will allocate over $2.5 million in capital to select winners.

Colosseum’s hackathons differ from traditional formats, combining intensive engineering and business sprints where top developers compete for awards and funding across several categories. The Grand Champion, sponsored by Phantom, will receive $30,000 in USDC-SPL. Additional prizes ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 USDC are available across multiple tracks, including Consumer Apps by Raydium, DeFi by Arcium, Stablecoins by Reflect, RWAs by Forward Industries, Infrastructure by Triton, and an Undefined category by the Solana Foundation for unconventional ideas.

Special awards include the University Award, granting $10,000 USDC to the best student team, and the Public Goods Award, also valued at $10,000 USDC, for teams developing open-source technology that benefits the ecosystem.

All prize winners will be considered for Colosseum’s accelerator, with up to 15 teams selected to receive $250,000 in pre-seed funding, access to an exclusive mentorship network, private features on the Colosseum platform, in-person support at Colosseum’s San Francisco office, and additional resources. The program will culminate in a Demo Day, offering accelerator teams the opportunity to pitch leading cryptocurrency venture capitalists.

Colosseum Hackathons Encourage Diverse Teams And Ambitious, Market-Driven Crypto Projects

Colosseum hackathons differ from traditional developer-only events by encouraging participation from both technical and non-technical team members. Many previous winners were built by teams that combined developers with cofounders experienced in marketing, finance, operations, design, product management, and other roles. Non-technical participants are advised to collaborate with a technical lead, as the competitions require both engineering and business expertise.

Additionally, the platform recommends building products that create entirely new markets enabled by cryptocurrency or improve existing markets by bringing them on-chain. Participants are encouraged to develop solutions for problems they personally understand, leverage their prior industry experience, and pursue ambitious ideas—even those that have been attempted previously.

Furthermore, in Solana’s online hackathons, the final presentation is a key component due to the high volume of submissions. The presentation slide deck and video are crucial for standing out. During the final week, teams are advised to focus on creating a concise video presentation, ideally using Loom, highlighting the team background, product description, motivation for building the product, potential market opportunity, strategies for initial adoption or traction, and a product demo. Presentations must be under three minutes, requiring participants to tell their product story efficiently, demonstrate functionality, and clearly convey why the project has the potential to become a leading cryptocurrency innovation.