Etherlink Hackathon 2025 Concludes with Nearly 100 Submissions, $40+k in Prizes Distributed Amongst Winners

The Etherlink Hackathon 2025: Summer of Code has concluded with nearly 100 project submissions across DeFi, gaming, art, and AI categories. Following the month-long competition, 14 teams emerged victorious, winning a chance to collaborate with Trilitech's Business Development teams and bring their innovations to the Etherlink mainnet.

The hackathon, organized in partnership with Encode Club, attracted developers worldwide to build on Etherlink's high-performance infrastructure. Projects leveraged Layer 2's sub-500ms confirmations and near-zero transaction costs to create applications spanning from generative art platforms to AI-powered development tools.

"This was our first hackathon for Etherlink, and the response from builders has been phenomenal," said Adebola Adeniran, Developer Relations Engineer at Trilitech and hackathon mentor. "We received nearly 100 submissions, with standout projects emerging across DeFi, Art, Gaming, and AI. Several teams will be selected to collaborate with our Business Development teams to bring their ideas to life on the Etherlink mainnet."

Permalink claimed both the Best Overall Project award and first place in the Collab Culture category for its fully on-chain generative art platform. Permalink was created by a digital artist for the digital art community. The platform empowers artists to easily experiment with AI and algorithmic techniques, making it simple to generate unique works and mint them as NFTs.

In the DeFi category, Stack won first place for its gamified, mobile-first Web3 investment platform targeting Gen Z users. The application enables fractional investment in real-world assets and stocks for as little as $1, with automated investing through daily habits. Runner-up Superlink presented a mature DeFi vault project with strong community engagement, while MeshPay secured third place for enabling offline blockchain-based payments in emerging markets.

“Etherlink’s developer experience has been smooth and powerful. Its EVM compatibility allowed us to use familiar tooling (Hardhat, Viem, Solidity) while benefiting from the performance and low-fee characteristics of Tezos' L2. We’re especially excited about Etherlink’s focus on real-world utility and believe it’s one of the best environments to launch community- or data-driven protocols like Foretell,” said the builders working on the project Foretell. 

The gaming category showcased innovative approaches to on-chain entertainment. Etherlink Bounce To Earn GameFi took first place for delivering a playable, engaging experience, while Seas of Linkardia earned second place for excellent onboarding and UI/UX design, scalable for both Web2 and Web3 users.

The Vibecode wildcard category highlighted creative applications of blockchain technology. Time Stone won for its innovative app that lets users lock files until a chosen point in the future, ensuring they can only be accessed later. The app uses decentralized time oracles and cryptographic encryption for security. Etherlink Agent Kit secured second place for integrating LangChain capabilities with a comprehensive SDK for account, token, NFT, and chain operations.

Special recognition went to Tickity for the Community Choice Award, recognizing its mobile ticketing concept, and FOMO Insurance received the Judges' Choice Award for its innovative DeFi insurance approach.

Winners will receive mentorship and additional funding opportunities as they develop their projects for mainnet deployment. The collaboration between hackathon teams and Trilitech's Business Development division aims to accelerate the transition from concept to production-ready applications.

To learn more about upcoming Hackathons in the Etherlink ecosystem, join the Discord channel: https://discord.gg/etherlink. Find out more about the winners on the official hackathon website.

About Etherlink 
Etherlink is an EVM-compatible Layer 2 blockchain powered by Tezos Smart Rollups technology. It empowers developers to smoothly deploy any EVM codebase and migrate users and assets from Ethereum and other interoperable chains, enabling seamless interaction and asset transfers across different networks. Learn more: https://www.etherlink.com/

About Encode Club 
Encode Club is a leading blockchain education and community platform that organizes hackathons, bootcamps, and educational programs to support the next generation of Web3 developers and entrepreneurs.