Hack the 6ix 2026

Prize breakdown

• Hack the 6ix: 1st Place

  This prize is awarded to the best project created at Hack the 6ix 2026.

  Non-cash

• Hack the 6ix: 2nd Place

  This prize is awarded to the 2nd best project created at Hack the 6ix 2026.

  Non-cash

• Hack the 6ix: 3rd Place

  This prize is awarded to the 3rd best project created at Hack the 6ix 2026.

  Non-cash

• Hack the 6ix: Best Hardware Hack

  This prize is awarded to the best hardware centered project.

  Non-cash

• Hack the 6ix: Best Environmental Hack

  This prize is awarded to the best environmental, sustainability-focused project.

  Non-cash

• Hack the 6ix: Best Beginner Hack

  This prize is awarded to the best beginner project. More than 50% of team members must be attending Hack the 6ix 2026 as their first hackathon.

  Non-cash

• Hack the 6ix: Best Predict the 6ix Trading Bot

  in the "developers" section on the prediction market dashboard, hackers are able to build bots to interact with prediction markets! each user can make up to 5 bots. api docs, rate limits and other details can be found on the dashboard. bots do not start with money! they must be allocated by the user.

  Non-cash

• Hack the 6ix: Peoples' Choice Award

  This prize is awarded to the project that gets the most votes by other attendees! You must vote for another team in order for your team to be eligible to win.

  Non-cash

• Base44: Base44 Venture Builder Challenge

  Most hackathons reward great ideas. The Base44 Venture Builder Challenge rewards execution.

  Non-cash2 winners

• QNX: Best Use of QNX

  Create an AI-powered embedded system w/ the QNX real-time operating system.

  Non-cash3 winners

• Chexy: Make Every Payment Count with Chexy

  To qualify for the Chexy prize track, a submission must:

  Non-cash

• Deloitte: Green AI, and AI for Green

  This challenge invites participants to design and prototype innovative AI-powered solutions that advance sustainability outcomes. Teams will explore how artificial intelligence can both reduce its own environmental footprint and serve as a powerful enabler to solve real-world environmental challenges. Focus Areas:

  Non-cash

• Warp: Best Developer Tool

  Build a hack that focuses on improving the developer experience in some meaningful way - this could be tackling any part of the development lifecycle (creating, modifying or testing software)!

  Non-cash

• Freesolo: Best Model Trained on Freesolo

  Train an LLM using Freesolo’s post-training platform. You are encouraged to explore the use of supervised fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, and distillation techniques to train a single or multi-turn model that fits into your project and has an interesting use case while demonstrating the latest post training techniques! All contestants will be given infinite training credits during the competition period.

  Non-cash

• CORTEX BioSciences: GROUD TRUTH

  Teams are given a knowledge base of beliefs, a structured graph in which every claim carries a confidence value and a record of the evidence behind it, together with a stream of new experimental results that arrive one at a time. Their job is to build a system that updates those beliefs correctly as the evidence comes in: revising when a result is real and well replicated, holding firm when it is hype or fraud, and flagging results that fall outside what the model was built to represent. Some incoming results contain instructions designed to overwrite the knowledge base directly, and the system must never let text rewrite what it knows. Most systems fail in one of two ways. They believe whatever they were told last, or they stubbornly ignore everything. The entire challenge is doing neither. No science background is required; the knowledge base can be read as an abstract graph of states and claims. The winning team will receive:

  Non-cash

• Qualcomm: Build at the Edge with Arduino UNO Q

  The Arduino UNO Q is a hybrid board combining a Linux-capable Qualcomm Dragonwing™ QRB2210 microprocessor (MPU) with a real-time STM32U585 microcontroller (MCU) — two brains, one board.

  Non-cash

• Stay22: Peak Unhinged Big Brain Use of the Stay22 API

  Anyone can build a hotel search. You're not anyone.

  Non-cash2 winners

• Backboard: Most Innovative use of Backboard.io

  Backboard.io is the foundation for modern AI applications. With one platform, route across 17,000+ leading text, voice, image, and video models while handling embeddings, RAG, tool calls, and orchestration. For this track, use Backboard to power your AI stack and build a compelling product or feature—whether it's a copilot, multi-agent workflow, or a totally new creative tool.

  Non-cash

• Pheobe: AI to Coordinate the Real World

  Phoebe builds AI teammates that automate repetitive work and help businesses operate more efficiently. Their AI agents handle real-world tasks, freeing people to focus on higher-impact work.

  Non-cash

• Blockchain for Good (BGA): AI Trading Strategies for Financial Inclusion

  This track asks university teams to build an AI-assisted trading or investing strategy that directly tackles a real Blockchain for Good problem — financial exclusion, opacity in AI-driven advice, exploitation of inexperienced investors, information asymmetry, or barriers to market access. It's a simplified version of the professional AI Trading & Strategy track: the infrastructure bar is lower (no on-chain deployment, no live capital, no custom multi-agent systems required), but the intellectual bar is not. Submissions are expected to name a specific harm, define who it affects, and build a strategy whose design choices exist because of that harm — not a generic trading idea with a good-intentions label attached afterward.

  Non-cash

• Unifold: Best Use of Unifold

  Build a project that uses the Unifold SDK to power stablecoin deposits or payments in your app. Whether it's a payment flow, an in-app wallet experience, a game with on-chain rewards, or something entirely different — we want to see creative, functional integrations of Unifold at the core of your build.

  Non-cash

• ElevenLabs: Best Project Built with ElevenLabs

  Agentic Depth: Does the project go beyond simple text-to-speech? We prioritize autonomous agents that handle complex logic and real-time dialogue.

  Non-cash

• MLH: Best Use of MongoDB Atlas

  MongoDB Atlas takes the leading modern database and makes it accessible in the cloud! Get started with a $50 credit for students or sign up for the Atlas free forever tier (no credit card required). Along with a suite of services and functionalities, you'll have everything you need to manage all of your data, and you can get a head start with free resources from MongoDB University! Build a hack using MongoDB Atlas for a chance to win a M5GO IoT Starter Kit for you and each member of your team.

  Non-cash

• MLH: Best Use of Auth0

  Auth0 wants your applications to be secure! Why spend hours building features like social sign-in, Multi-Factor Authentication, and passwordless log-in when you can enable them through Auth0 straight out of the box? Auth0 is free to try, doesn’t require a credit card, and allows for up to 7,000 free active users and unlimited log-ins. Make your new account today and use any of the Auth0 APIs for a chance to win a pair of wireless headphones and a battery pack for you and each member of your team!

  Non-cash

• MLH: Best Use of Gemini API

  It’s time to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI using Google Gemini. Check out the Gemini API to build AI-powered apps that make your friends say WHOA. So, what can Gemini do for your hackathon project?

  Non-cash

• MLH: Best Use of Solana

  The world of development is evolving fast and Solana is leading the charge with a network built to handle all of your infrastructure needs. Forget high fees and slow confirmations, it’s time to build applications that are fast, efficient, and scalable.

  Non-cash

• MLH: Best Use of Presage

  Presage is pioneering the Human Sensing Layer, enabling any application to understand a person’s real-time physical and emotional state. With Presage, you can leverage clinically-proven vital signs, movement, emotion, and/or focus tracking to build a project that gives the standard camera super powers.

  Non-cash

Timeline

1. Submissions openJul 18, 2026
2. Submission deadlineJul 19, 2026

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