On April 21, the HTX Genesis Hackathon, hosted by HTX DAO and B.AI and co-initiated by TinTinLand and OpenCity, officially kicked off in Hong Kong. The event abandons the traditional hackathon model of pure coding contests, pioneering a full-cycle pipeline of “Development—Incubation—Investment—Listing.” Its goal is to discover projects with enduring intrinsic value at the intersection of AI and Web3.
Justin Sun: AI Agents Will Replace Legacy Interfaces
During the opening ceremony, HTX advisor Justin Sun delivered a virtual keynote. He argued that past Web3 applications suffered from steep learning curves and fragmented on-chain interactions, but AI Agents are poised to shift decentralized apps from manual operations to intent-driven models powered by natural language. AI Agents autonomously interpret user needs, plan execution paths, and execute complex cross-chain settlements, potentially unlocking on-chain productivity and driving mass adoption.
HTX DAO Launches $10M Ecosystem Fund
HTX DAO Ambassador Molly outlined the “Free Financial Port” ecosystem matrix, including HTX exchange (liquidity engine), HTX DAO (governance core), TRON (payment backbone), JustLend and SunX (DeFi infrastructure), HTX Ventures (capital and incubation), and B.AI (financial infrastructure for the AI Agent era).
She announced a $10 million USDT Ecosystem Development Fund with a three-tier precision disbursement mechanism: Tier 1 for early innovation milestones, Tier 2 for convertible commercial growth grants, and Tier 3 for follow-on incentives to excellent ecosystems. This approach rejects blanket subsidies, providing end-to-end support from cold start to commercial maturity.
Molly also highlighted four strategic pillars for HTX: Stability, Transparency, Institutionalization, and AI-Empowerment, aiming to enhance long-term competitiveness and help partners navigate market volatility.
Roundtable Consensus: Systemic Innovation Is Key
A subsequent roundtable discussion focused on value creation, on-chain capital efficiency, and the path to Web3 mass adoption. The consensus was that isolated technical breakthroughs are insufficient; systemic prosperity requires synergy among technology, capital, liquidity, and a robust user base.
Timeline and Resources
The hackathon runs from April to July 2026, expected to attract around 100 global development teams, culminating in a final showcase in Hong Kong. Beyond prize incentives, winning projects will receive multi-dimensional support from TRON, HTX, and B.AI, including specialized computing resources, technical integration, ecosystem networking, and joint marketing campaigns.
The HTX Genesis Hackathon is evolving from a competition into an infrastructure node bridging global developer talent with premium ecosystem resources. It is not only hunting for the next Alpha but building the structural foundation for the next wave of Web3 growth.