Cronos Kicks Off $42K AI Payment Hackathon on Upgraded Blockchain

Cronos has launched the x402 PayTech Hackathon, offering a $42,000 prize pool for developers to build AI-native payment applications on its recently upgraded blockchain network. The initiative, announced on November 27, 2025, targets innovations in automated settlement flows, intelligent wallet tooling, and real-world asset payment integrations that connect to the Cronos and Crypto.com ecosystems.

Recent network upgrades have slashed gas fees by 90%, increased daily transactions by approximately 400%, and reduced block times to under one second, enhancing Cronos' suitability for institutional tokenization and AI-driven financial infrastructure. Mirko Zhao, Head of Cronos Labs, emphasized, "The x402 PayTech Hackathon represents the first wave of real-world experimentation where AI agents don’t just compute, but exchange value." He noted that Cronos' performance gains and AI tooling enable developers to create practical, agentic applications.

Registration is open on DoraHacks, with the build phase running from early December through late January. Participants will receive technical guidance, workshops, and access to resources on Cronos EVM, x402 programmatic payments, and the Crypto.com AI Agent SDK. Promising projects may secure post-hackathon support through grants, incubation, or partnerships, leveraging Cronos' ecosystem of over 500 developers and a potential user base of 150 million via Crypto.com.

Cronos ranks among the top 15 blockchains by total value, securing over $6 billion in user assets and processing more than 100 million transactions since its launch, with fees paid in its native CRO token.