While most people still understand hackathons as "developer competitions," some more profound changes have already begun to occur.
On April 21st, the HTX Genesis Hackathon, hosted by HTX DAO and B.AI, and co-initiated by TinTinLand and OpenCity, opened in Hong Kong. The opening event was a resounding success, with frequent exchanges and high levels of interaction. Participants from the developer community, investment institutions, project teams, trading platforms, and the public blockchain ecosystem gathered to systematically discuss the technological evolution and commercial applications of AI × Web3.
As a crucial entry point for global innovators within the HTX DAO ecosystem, the HTX Genesis Hackathon broke away from the traditional hackathon's singular development focus from the outset, instead constructing a complete closed loop of "development-incubation-investment-launch." The event revolved around tracks such as AI and Web3 infrastructure, emphasizing real-world demand-driven and sustainable growth logic, aiming to select innovative projects with long-term value.
The Web3 Reconstruction Logic Driven by AI: Ecosystem Capabilities Become the Core Competitive Variable
What sets the HTX Genesis hackathon apart is what it tries to express.
At the opening ceremony, Justin Sun, Global Advisor of Huobi HTX, made a grand appearance online and shared his latest judgment on the future development direction of the industry, focusing on the trend of AI × Web3 integration, providing a more macro perspective for the entire event.
Justin Sun believes that AI Agents will replace traditional interaction methods and become the core driving force of the next stage of the Web3 ecosystem.
He explained that past Web3 applications often involved extremely high learning curves and complex on-chain interactions. The introduction of AI Agents will drive the evolution of decentralized applications from "manual operation" to "intention-driven" based on natural language. This means that AI Agents can autonomously understand user needs, automatically plan paths, and complete complex on-chain settlements such as cross-chain transactions. This paradigm shift towards intelligence and autonomy will not only greatly unleash on-chain productivity but will also become a new breakthrough point for breaking through the bottleneck of Web3 user growth and leading the industry towards true large-scale adoption.
HTX DAO Ambassador Molly's speech shifted the focus from industry assessments back to the ecosystem itself.
Molly shared her insights on the theme of "HTX DAO Ecosystem Development Plan: Launch of a Multi-Million Yuan Ecosystem Fund and Value Closed-Loop Strategy".
She pointed out that the core vision of the HTX Genesis Hackathon is to build a free financial hub based on the heartland of exchanges . Around this goal, five major ecosystem matrices covering the entire industry chain have been constructed, including:
● Huobi HTX serves as the core business engine and liquidity center;
● HTX DAO serves as the governance hub and centralized decision-making brain of the ecosystem;
● The public chain and innovation layer provide payment network support with TRON and build a solid DeFi infrastructure with JustLend, SunX and others;
● HTX Ventures focuses on industry frontiers, providing investment, incubation, and acceleration services for outstanding projects;
● B.AI, on the other hand, is targeting future trends and is committed to building financial infrastructure for the AI Agent era.
According to Molly, to truly empower the ecosystem, this hackathon launched a massive 10 million USDT ecosystem development fund. This fund abandons the traditional approach of broad-based funding, adopting a "precision empowerment" strategy. Through a three-tiered distribution mechanism—"Early Innovation Milestone Release (Tier 1), Commercial Growth Convertible Funding (Tier 2), and Outstanding Ecosystem Additional Funding (Tier 3)"—it provides full-lifecycle support for projects from cold start to commercial maturity.
Molly also specifically pointed out that, regarding future development, Huobi HTX has clearly put forward four core strategic keywords: "stability, transparency, institutionalization, and AI empowerment," aiming to enhance the platform's long-term competitiveness in a complex market environment and provide ecosystem participants with more certain growth expectations.
During the subsequent roundtable discussion, the focus gradually narrowed to several more fundamental questions:
How is value created? How can capital flow more efficiently on the blockchain? And how can Web3 applications truly achieve mass adoption?
Roundtable Forum
Many participants generally agreed that a single technological breakthrough is no longer enough to support a new growth cycle. Only with the synergy of multiple factors such as technology, capital, liquidity, and users can the Web3 ecosystem move from structural innovation to systemic prosperity.
Full-dimensional resource empowerment: anchoring the next Web3 Alpha
As the discussion deepens, the competition roadmap for this HTX Genesis Hackathon will be fully unveiled.
The competition will run from April to July 2026 and is expected to attract about 100 hardcore development teams from around the world, with the final stage showcase and judging taking place in Hong Kong.
In addition to prize money, selected projects will receive multi-dimensional support from TRON, Huobi HTX, and B.AI, including computing power resources, technical support, ecosystem cooperation, and joint promotion.
In an era of accelerated convergence between AI and Web3, the HTX Genesis hackathon is transforming from a single competition platform into an "infrastructure node" connecting global developers' innovation with top-tier ecosystem resources. It's not just about finding the next Alpha, but also about providing the most solid structural support for the real growth of Web3 applications in the next phase.
Regarding HTX DAO
HTX DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) initiated by Huobi HTX exchange and supported by the TRON public chain ecosystem. It was jointly established by community members, early contributors, and global advisors. HTX DAO is committed to building an open governance ecosystem that is user-driven, transparent in rules, and highly efficient in collaboration, becoming a key engine for promoting the development of the decentralized finance system.
HTX DAO adheres to the principle of "holding tokens equals governance," aiming to inspire global user consensus and participation, connect community interests with platform value, and explore a new order in the world of crypto finance.
Contact information
Official website: www.htxdao.com
Email: media@htxdao.com
