- A total of 63 teams reached the halfway point. $IOTA Hackathon. Product concepts and system architectures are submitted to the Build Now competition.
- The majority of submissions focused on trade and supply chains. RWA/TradFi, data privacy, reputation, infrastructure, and AI were also targeted.
Masters× $IOTA The hackathon has reached the halfway stage of the Build Now competition. provided Based on product concept, system architecture, and technology stack $IOTA. During this phase, 63 teams were actively developing in the areas of trading systems, tokenized assets, privacy tools, infrastructure, reputation systems, and AI-based applications.
Participants moved from structured learning to hands-on construction and the associated smart contract language. $IOTAprogrammable layer. The current deliverables indicate where the team is focusing its development efforts by the March 31st project deadline.
MasterZ (@masterz87148) × $IOTA The hackathon reached a mid-term milestone with the Build Now competition.
Teams submitted product concepts, system architectures, and technology stacks built on top of them. $IOTA Across:
trade and supply chain
RWA and TradFi
Data integrity and privacy… pic.twitter.com/iwjVCZOiH6— $IOTA (@iota) February 26, 2026
Trade and supply chain projects form the largest group. Many teams are building tools for compliance workflows, cross-border documentation, provenance tracking, and cross-company coordination. Several concepts tie the trading process to tokenization and funding functions.
Another team works on bridging real-world assets and the traditional financial system. These projects focus on tokenized market access, programmable payments, and infrastructure for assets that are difficult to move or divide using traditional systems.
This week is CNF reported that $IOTA We’ve launched a sustainability page to make it easier to publish and more easily disclose our network’s energy usage, emissions data, and MiCA Index metrics.
Identity, privacy and AI $IOTA hackathon
Data integrity and privacy is another area the team is working on. $IOTA I’ve been focusing on hackathons. The group is building capabilities such as notarization, cryptographic verification, and decentralized identity that keep records tamper-proof and auditable. Sensitive data is not placed directly on-chain and relies on selective disclosure methods.
The team is also creating verifiable trust systems for users and organizations, with a focus on certificates, non-transferable credentials, and self-sovereign identity models.
The infrastructure team developed middleware, interoperability layers, and system-level tools on which other applications could be built. In parallel, a smaller AI group is testing how AI services can connect with verifiable data, identity primitives, and on-chain coordination. These projects represent practical experiments at the intersection of automation and trusted digital systems.
After the March 31 submission deadline, the project will move on to final evaluation. The top five teams will present in Berlin before MasterZ. $IOTAthe top 10 teams will participate in an accelerator program run by AIO Blockchain Lab. Additionally, the top 30 projects will be displayed on a public leaderboard, increasing visibility to ecosystem partners.
Richard Mands, Director of Developer Relations; $IOTA The Foundation commented:
The Build Now contest is an important checkpoint in the hackathon. What is encouraging is the level of seriousness that we are seeing. Quality and depth of architectural thinking $IOTA Integration shows that participants are building with long-term intent.
Earlier this month, we also covered that $IOTA has launched an expert advisory board to support the real-world rollout of the Trade Worldwide Information Network (TWIN).
