Daxos Capital · DD board · 08/18/26 · confidential
Hackathon Alumni: Who Became Real
Two years of major crypto hackathons (2024 - mid-2026), filtered to winners that became real projects. Swept: 4 Colosseum events (145 winner projects), 12 ETHGlobal events (~118 finalists of ~5,000 submissions), 12 other event cycles (~70 winners), 9 new-chain programs (~45 alumni) — roughly 380 winners reviewed, 25 featured. Funding numbers from Harmonic. Every headline claim re-verified in an adversarial pass; scores are company / Daxos-fit. Base rates for honesty: ~5% of ETHGlobal finalists show real continuation; consumer winners die fastest; DeFi-infra with TVL and funded hard-tech survive.
Best Daxos fits — early / pre-token
Hylo hylo.soCOMPANY 7.0FIT 7.5 STRONG
Colosseum Radar (Oct 2024), Payments 2nd · $1.5M (Robot Ventures, Colosseum) · pre-token · Solana
Dual-token stablecoin/LST protocol. $34.7M TVL, confirmed on DefiLlama at review time. Tiny raise against real TVL; the cleanest early entry on this board. 3-person team.
Breakout Infra 3rd AND Cypherpunk GRAND CHAMPION (only double-winner in the sweep) · ~$250K Colosseum cohort-4 only · pre-token
Solana hardware wallet, built by two engineers. Initial production run sold out (verified on site); shipping 2026. Contrarian hardware in a software field, at the earliest possible capital stage.
Colosseum Renaissance (2024) DeFi track · $7.1M (L1D, RockawayX, Mechanism, Solana Ventures) · pre-token
Solana yield trading (the Pendle of Solana). $135.9M TVL, confirmed. Best company in the sweep. Pre-token with points: entry via round or ecosystem relationship; seed was Apr 2026 so pricing may already stretch our ceiling. Note: we tracked this one independently in the July Pendle-competitor dossier.
Renaissance Infra 1st (as "High TPS Solana Client") · $3.25M (P2P.org, Slow, cyber.Fund) · no token
High-throughput Solana validator client. Figment migrated its primary Solana validator to Rakurai (Mar 2026, +32bps rewards); Coinbase testing. Real infra adoption on a small raise.
ETHGlobal Prague 2025 finalist + Colosseum cohort-4 (~$250K) · otherwise $0 raised · pre-token
Per-tool-call micropayments for AI agents (x402/MCP). Live. Sits exactly on the agent-payments thesis we already like (ATXP 7.5, Sponge 8.0). x402 integration evidence is thin beyond their own site: verify before a check.
ETHGlobal Bangkok 2024 finalist · angel round Nov 2025 (Kartik Talwar et al., undisclosed) · pre-token · Japan
Walk-to-earn treasure hunt app (Solana + Monad), live on iOS/Android; enterprise pilots claimed with Japan Airlines/Tokyu/JR; ex-Pokemon GO advisors. The single best ETHGlobal-finalist conversion. "55K users / 10K DAU" is self-reported; App Store shows only 8 US ratings and a 5-month update gap: get real numbers from the founder.
Breakout DeFi 3rd · not in Harmonic (no round) · pre-token
FHE encrypted-DeFi coprocessor. Shipped private ZEC swaps on Solana mainnet via Jupiter (CoinDesk-covered, Oct 2025) + peer-reviewed IACR paper. Real cryptography shipping, pre-raise.
Renaissance DePIN 2nd · $2.75M (Lemniscap, EV3) · CHARGE token planned 2026 · India
EV-charging DePIN: 1,500+ chargers, 2.5M charge-minutes (Messari-corroborated); 1M-charger partnership announced at Breakpoint 2025. Site was down (Cloudflare 522) at review time: check ops before engaging.
Radar GRAND CHAMPION (Oct 2024) · $3.75M (Solana Ventures, Big Brain) · pre-token
Yield-bearing stablecoin infrastructure; whitelabel product live (mainnet Sep 2025). No named whitelabel customers verified yet: that's the DD question.
Monad Madness Bangkok winner (Nov 2024) · $0 raised (Harmonic) · pre-token · Ukraine-founded
On-chain sports predictions, live day-one on Monad mainnet. Pre-raise window is open: cheapest possible entry if on-chain usage verifies. No usage number found; root domain 404s (app subdomain works).
Monad Madness Bangkok winner · $1.09M (Harmonic) · pre-token · HK entity
Social-media betting app, live on Monad since Dec 2025. Their "Isle of Man license" claim FAILED our registry check (75 licensees, no Kizzy; could sit under a parent entity). Resolve before any engagement: that claim pattern is a red flag if it doesn't reconcile.
Base Batches 002 winner (Nov 2025) · $404K pre-seed (Microtraction, StarkWare, Hashed Emergent) · Nigeria
Decentralized stablecoin off-ramp for Africa. Live protocol, real backers, sub-$1M in. Volume unverifiable from outside: founder question.
ETHOnline 2025 finalist · $0 raised · LATAM
Digital-dollar transfers over WhatsApp (USDC on phone numbers, Coinbase CDP). Live. Pre-everything; classic emerging-market wedge.
VanishCOMPANY 5.5FIT 6.0
Breakout DeFi 1st (2025) · $1M pre-seed (Anatoly Yakovenko, Raydium, Solana Ventures) · pre-token
On-chain privacy for Solana DeFi. Yakovenko's name on a $1M pre-seed is the signal; product still early.
Already breaking out — validation, mostly late for entry
Monad Madness NYC 1st (Oct 2024) · $23.5M (Harmonic, incl. $18.5M strategic Jun 2026) · no token · Australia
Consumer brand-rewards app; 3M pilot signups; US/CA/UK/AU launch Jun 2026. "$30M rewards" = annualized brand-funded pool, only ~$50K actually paid out so far (their own press). At our valuation ceiling.
Sekai (Hashed-backed) sekai.chatCOMPANY 6.5FIT 5.5
ETHDenver 2024 winner · $3.1M seed (Hashed lead, a16z CSX, Azuki) — press-verified, not in Harmonic
AI collaborative storytelling on Story Protocol; operating. Name-collision warning: Lucky Zhang's Sekai ($26M, Khosla) is a different company: do not conflate.
MeshMapCOMPANY 6.5FIT 5.5
Renaissance Gaming 1st · $4.25M (a16z crypto, GSR, EV3) · no token (confirmed)
3D-mapping DePIN for XR. a16z already in = priced for us, but alive and shipping.
LEVR.betCOMPANY 6.0FIT 5.0
Monad Madness NYC 3rd · $5M seed (Harmonic) · live on Monad mainnet
Leveraged sports betting. Funded and live; mid-pack.
CapCOMPANY 6.5FIT 4.5
MegaMafia (MegaETH) · $12.9M (Harmonic) · stablecoin engine
Well-funded stablecoin yield engine; survived its chain's stumble better than peers. Priced past us.
GTECOMPANY 7.5FIT 3.5
MegaMafia · $25.9M Series A (Paradigm) · live CLOB DEX on MegaETH
The chain program's one breakout. Paradigm priced it; nothing for us but proof the pipeline works.
Base Batches 001 Demo Day #1 · round Oct 2025 (Coinbase Ventures, Balaji) · $NOICE live
Farcaster micro-tipping. Alive, but token at $928K mcap / $38K daily volume: the token already told the story.
Ore (Regolith)COMPANY 5.0FIT 3.0
Renaissance GRAND CHAMPION · $3.25M (Foundation Capital) · ORE token live
Solana PoW mining protocol. Token $28M mcap but -96% from ATH, mint frozen. The cautionary tale of hackathon hype: champion, funded, token: and still round-tripped.
Kodiak / Infrared (Berachain)COMPANY 5.5 / 5.0FIT 3.5 / 2.5
Build-a-Bera · Kodiak $2M seed, ~$35M TVL · Infrared $18.75M Series A, TVL -99% from peak
Both stranded on a chain that imploded ($3B+ → ~$100M ecosystem TVL). Kodiak's team ran the #1 DEX on $2M: talent note, not an investment: track where they go next.
TapeDriveCOMPANY 4.5FIT 4.5
Breakout GRAND CHAMPION (May 2025) · Colosseum $250K only
Decentralized storage. 15 months post-win and still testnet (confirmed on their own site). Champion title without shipped mainnet = execution question.
Events index — what we swept
| Cluster | Events | Winners reviewed | Became real (featured) | Read |
|---|
| Colosseum (Solana) | Renaissance '24, Radar '24, Breakout '25, Cypherpunk '25 | 145 extracted / ~40 assessed deep | Exponent, Hylo, Reflect, Rakurai, Unruggable, DeCharge, Encifher, Vanish, Ore, MeshMap, TapeDrive | Best pipeline in crypto; accelerator = $250K pre-seed. Grand champions ≠ safest bets (Urani, a 1st-place winner, is out of business; Trepa shut down Aug '26). |
| ETHGlobal | 12 events, Brussels '24 → Buenos Aires '25 | ~118 finalists (~5,000 submissions) | LootGO, MCPay, Sippy, Streme, Pomodoki | ~5% finalist continuation. The famous "alumni" (Freysa, Clanker, Blocksense) came from around the scene, not finalist slots. Finalists that survive: consumer apps + x402/agent payments. |
| Other majors | ETHDenver '24-'26, Base Batches 001/002, Onchain Summer, Chainlink, Encode, DoraHacks, Sui/Aptos, academic | ~70 | Sekai, Noice, Paycrest, Alphix, Onit, Upshot | Base Batches is the only non-ETHGlobal pipeline reliably minting funded companies. Chainlink/Encode/DoraHacks/academic tracks produced zero in-window. |
| New chains | Monad Madness (NYC/Bangkok), evm/accathon, Build-a-Bera, Hyperliquid comps, MegaMafia, Movement, Story | ~45 | EarnOS, GTE, Kizzy, RareBetSports, LEVR.bet, Cap, Kodiak, Infrared | Monad Madness reliably minted fundable companies. Berachain/Movement pools stranded by their chains (Movement Labs Chapter 11). MegaETH shut its own accelerator. Chain risk owns the outcome. |
Dead pool (sample of confirmed/probable dead)
Pyra (shut down, was featured-candidate), Trepa (shut down 8/11/26 despite Balaji backing), Urani (out of business: won its track), Melee Markets, Trenches.top, FXSwap, Squeeze, Chomp, Banger.lol, all 10 Movement Battle-of-Olympus champions (chain Chapter 11), most Berachain Build-a-Bera cohort, MegaMafia majority, ETHDenver '25/'26 winners wholesale, Chainlink Block Magic grand prize, ~30 ETHGlobal finalists with zero continuation signal. Full lists in the dossier.