Agents on Stellar

Agents are one of the biggest stories in tech right now, but most agents still run into the same hard stop: payments. They can reason, plan, and act — right up until they need to pay for an API call, unlock a tool, access premium data, or complete a paid task. That’s what makes this moment so interesting on Stellar. With x402 on Stellar, builders can turn ordinary HTTP requests into paid interactions using stablecoin micropayments and Soroban authorization, letting apps, services, and agents transact natively on the web.

This hackathon is about exploring what happens when agents don’t just talk — they can buy, sell, coordinate, and earn. Think agent-to-agent services, paid tools, autonomous research workflows, machine-run marketplaces, onchain paywalls, or APIs that monetize every useful call instead of hiding behind subscriptions and API keys. Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) is also pushing this frontier forward with machine-to-machine payment flows built for paid resources, microtransactions, and programmable access, and Stellar builders can also explore the experimental stellar-mpp-sdk for MPP-style flows on Stellar.

Stellar is a particularly strong place to build for this shift. It gives developers fast settlement, very low transaction costs, strong stablecoin infrastructure, and programmable guardrails through contract accounts and spending policies. In other words: the rails are finally here for software that can act economically, not just conversationally. The opportunity in this hackathon is to build the kinds of products that feel obvious in hindsight — apps, agents, and services that make the internet more programmable, more open, and more native to payments.

3-Minute Hackathon Primer

Watch this short 3-minute video from James Bachini to quickly get up to speed on the hackathon.

Resources

We have a lot of resources to help you during this hackathon. Visit the Resources tab.

Submission Requirements

1. Open-source repo A public GitHub or GitLab repository containing the full source code and a clear README.md explaining the project. The more detail you include, the better. Didn’t finish a feature? Used mock data in places? Document it in the README.
2. Video demo A 2–3 minute video walkthrough of your project. It doesn’t need to be overly technical, but it should clearly show what you built and explain the work you did.
3. Stellar testnet/mainnet interaction Your project must submit, consume, or otherwise integrate real Stellar testnet or mainnet transactions.

Inspiration & Ideas

Need a spark? Check out the Ideas & Inspiration tab.

$10,000 Prize Pool

This hackathon features a single open innovation track with awards for the top projects:

• First Place: $5,000 in XLM
• Second Place: $2,000 in XLM
• Third Place: $1,250 in XLM
• Fourth Place: $1,000 in XLM
• Fifth Place: $750 in XLM

Key Dates

• Submissions Open: March 30, 2026
• Submission deadline: April 13, 2026

Hackathon Support

The team is here to help you every step of the way. Feel free to drop in any of the following channels for assistance:

• Stellar Hacks Telegram Group
• Stellar Dev Discord

Note: Please beware of scams via DM on both platforms.