Announcing NEAR HACKATHON: Build Beyond Boundaries

Key insights

• Two weeks to build: NEAR HACKATHON runs from November 1, 2026 at 00:00 UTC to November 14 at 23:59 UTC. Judging takes place November 16-18, with results announced by November 18 at 23:59 UTC.
• Build what’s next for AI and money: Create intelligent agents, autonomous payments, and apps that move value across chains with NEAR Intents, NEAR AI Cloud, Chain Signatures, and more.
• Start building: No advance sign-up required. Go solo or assemble a team, then submit your project with a public repository and a public demo post on X. Be sure to leverage HACKATHON.md.
• Win Prizes: A total prize pool of $250,000

Two weeks. Your idea. A working prototype.

What would you build if your app could pay for services, act on decisions, and move money across chains?

NEAR HACKATHON gives you two weeks to turn that idea into a working prototype. From November 1-14, 2026, build with NEAR’s tools for AI and cross-chain payments to explore what happens when software can put money to work.

Getting started is simple: assemble your team, build a working prototype, show it off, and submit. Go solo or team up. No sign-up is required before your final submission.

When your prototype is ready, make your repository public and share a demo on X. Include a video or screenshots, and mention that you built it for NEAR HACKATHON. You’ll need links to both your repository and your demo post to submit.

The submission form asks for:

• Your project name and a description of 20-2,000 characters
• Your team lead, email address, and team size
• Your preferred track
• A NEAR account address for any prize payout
• Links to your public repository and demo post on X

Each team gets one submission, and it cannot be edited after you send it. Publish your repository and demo first, double-check your details, then submit the form.

Autonomous payments. Intelligent agents. Money with a mind of its own. Show us what you can build.

Show your work. Make it count.

Give the judges a clear path from your idea to your working prototype. Your repository must be public by November 14 at 23:59 UTC. Alongside your demo on X, it should make it easy to understand what you built, how it works, and why it matters.

The judges include NEAR’s Illia Polosukhin; Mert Mumtaz of Helius; Eddy Lazzarin of a16z crypto; Avichal Garg of Electric Capital; Kain Warwick of Synthetix and Infinex; Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly; and Stepan Gershuni of cyber•Fund, with Claude Code and Codex reviewing as AI judges.

Make your README work for both audiences. Explain what your product does, the problem it solves, and how to run it. Follow the guidance in HACKATHON.md: give judges clear steps to try your prototype, with an expected result for each step –“do X, see Y.”

Looking for inspiration? NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin recently shared a list of project ideas for builders looking for a starting point.

The tools to bring your idea to life

NEAR’s toolkit gives you a place to start:

• Connect across chains: Explore NEAR Intents, Chain Signatures, and chain abstraction.
• Build with confidential execution: Get started with NEAR AI Cloud, TEE’s, and 1-Click Swap SDK.
• Design how users own and use accounts: Explore function call keys, meta transactions, sub-accounts, and named accounts.

Follow your idea and choose the tools that fit. These listed technologies are just starting points, not a checklist. In your README, name the ones you used so judges can see how they power your project.

Looking for more building blocks? HACKATHON.md also points to documentation from ten ecosystem partners. Use those docs to check current endpoints, contract addresses, and SDK versions as you build.

Tracks

There are 13 tracks for the NEAR HACKATHON:

• Unstoppable DeFi: Build cross-chain exchanges, lending platforms, vaults and trading agents powered by NEAR Intents.
• Investment Thesis: Make a data-backed case for NEAR’s long-term potential using onchain analytics, dashboards and reproducible models.
• Privacy & Private AI: Build confidential applications and AI that keep sensitive data protected.
• Autonomous Business: Create AI-run businesses that manage payments, sales, procurement and treasuries within human-defined constraints.
• AI Swarms: Build systems where multiple AI agents coordinate, bid, pool resources and transact together.
• AI Security & Defense: Make AI-controlled money safer with spending limits, wallet safeguards, reputation systems and scam detection.
• Agent Economy: Give AI agents the ability to earn, spend, negotiate and pay for services or other agents.
• Real-World Money: Bring everyday business payments onchain, from payroll and invoices to remittances and stablecoin payments.
• Games With Real Economies: Create games with wallet-enabled NPCs, player-owned markets and evolving economies.
• NFTs That Do Something: Build NFTs that hold funds, earn royalties, manage inventory or provide credentials and access.
• Memecoins With Mechanics: Give memecoins meaningful functionality through community-driven rules, programmable treasuries and onchain challenges.
• Social Money: Build tools for shared budgets, community rewards and collective ownership using Sputnik DAO and Trezu.
• Open Innovation: Explore fresh ideas that connect money, intelligence and ownership beyond the other tracks.

Prize Pool: $250,000

Get Started

Submissions open on 1 November 2026 at 00:00 UTC. Read the details and HACKATHON.md at nearhackathon.com. Find teammates and ask questions in the NEAR Discord, and follow @NEAR_hckthn for updates.