Hassan Maishera
Cronos announced on Thursday, November 27th, that it has launched the x402 PayTech Hackathon, a global builder challenge with a $42,000 USD prize pool designed to accelerate innovation in AI-native, on-chain payments.
x402 PayTech Hackathon Seeks to Advance AI-Directed On-Chain Payments
In a press release shared with Cryptowisser, Cronos added that it is inviting developers to explore new applications powered by x402 agentic payments, the Crypto.com AI Agent SDK, and emerging infrastructure across the Cronos and Crypto.com ecosystem.
According to the Cronos team, recent upgrades have slashed gas fees by 10X, increased daily transactions by 400% and shortened block times to under one second. These upgrades make Cronos one of the most production-ready environments for intelligent on-chain systems.
The hackathon allows developers to experiment with automated settlement flows, AI-driven wallet actions, RWA integrations, Crypto.com ecosystem interactions, and new developer tooling for AI agents.
The integration allows developers to leverage Cronos and Crypto.com’s real-world payment and asset infrastructure with the potential to reach millions of users globally.
While commenting on this hackathon, Mirko Zhao, Head of Cronos Labs, said,
“The x402 PayTech Hackathon represents the first wave of real-world experimentation where AI agents don’t just compute, but exchange value. With Cronos’ recent performance gains and its growing suite of AI-native tooling, teams now have the infrastructure they need to turn agentic applications into reality. We look forward to seeing builders transform these capabilities into practical applications that advance the industry.”
Cronos added that developers will gain access to technical guidance, workshops, office hours, and a growing library of developer resources covering Cronos EVM, x402 programmatic payments, and the Crypto.com AI Agent SDK.
Finally, high-potential teams will also have the opportunity to enjoy post-hackathon support, including grants, incubation, or deeper ecosystem collaboration.
This hackathon comes four months after Cronos completed a major performance upgrade to the Cronos EVM mainnet, delivering up to a 10x reduction in block time. With its instant finality, Cronos now ranks among the world’s 10 fastest blockchains for on-chain finality, opening the door to real-time DeFi, AI, and payments.
Cronos is a leading blockchain ecosystem, supported by Crypto.com and more than 500 application developers and contributors representing an addressable user base of more than 150 million people around the world.
