Stellar Philippines and web3 education platform Rise In concluded the “Build the Future of Finance” hackathon on May 23, 2026, marking the deployment of 28 localized applications onto the Stellar Mainnet. The week-long event culminated in an in-person Demo Day hosted at the Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) headquarters in Manila, where 16 finalist teams presented financial infrastructure solutions tailored to local economic challenges.
Hackathon Metrics and Ecosystem Support
According to a statement sent by organizers, the hackathon recorded 165 registrations and 32 total project submissions, with 28 teams successfully executing deployments on the Stellar network.
The judging panel consisted of PDAX Chief Technology Officer Franz Allan See, Global Miner Marketing Group (GMMG) Dubai Chief Executive Officer Coach Miranda Miner, Maiba Studio Founder El Bonuan, and Bitskwela Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jiro Reyes. Finalists received technical mentoring from Stellar Philippines Tech Lead Armi Obinguar, Ambassador Lead Steve Jimenez, and developer mentor Carl Aldrey Bergado.
Awarded Projects and Use Cases
A total of five teams received recognition during the final awarding ceremony at the PDAX headquarters. Financial technology solutions presented by the teams focused primarily on connectivity barriers, developer tools, small enterprise liquidity, and remittance transparency.
- Champion: AbotPera developed a digital payments application designed to function in low-connectivity and zero-data environments, targetting rural barangays and remote provinces lacking stable internet infrastructure.
- 1st Runner-Up: PinkRaft, developed by Carl Macabales (Mapua Institute of Technology Makati), Mychal Pejana (FEU Institute of Technology), and Mark Hugh Neri (The Blocklabs Inc.), built an artificial intelligence-assisted workflow tool to assist developers in designing payment architectures on the Soroban smart contract platform.
- 2nd Runner-Up: Axial, created by four students from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines operating as Axon Enjin, built a liquidity and compliance engine for local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to unlock capital from tokenized receivables while automating tax and statutory payroll contributions.
- Best Use of Stellar: Sobre developed a digital envelope budgeting platform utilizing stablecoins on the Stellar network to provide transaction transparency for Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) remittances.
- Best Use of Stellar: TyFi, developed by solo founder Prince Dale of Vertigral Technologies, created a blockchain infrastructure prototype aimed at delivering immediate financial assistance and credit alternatives to agricultural workers affected by natural disasters.
Institutional Integration Context
During the Demo Day, PDAX provided participants with access to its API staging environment to demonstrate how decentralized financial applications interact with regulated domestic exchange frameworks.
The deployment of these applications onto the Stellar network aligns with existing commercial infrastructure inside the Philippine digital asset ecosystem. Philippine-licensed entities, including Coins.ph, alongside global trading platforms like Bybit, already maintain active integration pipelines for asset transfers and liquidity settlement utilizing the Stellar blockchain network.
According to Stellar Philippines Country Lead Nelson Lumbres, multiple participating teams from this cohort have commenced preparation for the upcoming regional APAC Stellar Hackathon.
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