[PRESS RELEASE – Dubai, UAE, August 5th, 2026]
BNB Chain, one of the most active blockchain ecosystems worldwide, today announced Build the Era, an open hackathon challenging builders to create the definitive AI agent marketplace on BNB Smart Chain (BSC). The winning submission will have the opportunity to become the officially adopted BNB Agent Studio marketplace, backed by BNB Chain as a standalone product with its own brand and team.
The hackathon addresses a discoverability gap that has emerged as agent activity on BSC has scaled. More than 200,000 AI agents are now registered on BSC under ERC-8004, the standard for onchain agent identity — roughly 60% of all registered agents across 26 networks.
Participants are asked to build the marketplace itself, not a portfolio of individual agents, and submissions will be judged primarily on how easily someone can discover and hire an agent through the platform. Agents registered under ERC-8004 already carry onchain identity and a track record other software can query; the core task for builders is making that data legible to a person deciding who to hire. The hackathon has no fixed tracks for the main prize; allowing teams to compete across different domains, as well as for partner prizes. The community will define what a BSC-native marketplace should look like.
To guide development, BNB Chain will share reference agents and skills spanning four categories: monitoring agents that track markets, wallets, and positions; grid trading agents that run automated strategies within set ranges; health factor agents that monitor loan positions to act ahead of liquidation; and yield agents that reallocate capital toward the highest-earning opportunities. These categories are intended as guidance rather than fixed judging criteria.
The winning marketplace will be considered for adoption as BNB Agent Studio’s official community marketplace, with BNB Chain backing continued development, user acquisition, and growth alongside the ecosystem. Taking first place does not preclude teams from also competing for partner-sponsored prizes.
Build the Era carries more than $40,000 in prizes from BNB Chain and ecosystem partners, alongside token and credit rewards:
- BNB Chain: $30,000 USDT
- TermiX: $10,000 USDT
- PancakeSwap: 1,000 CAKE
- AltLayer: 8004scan Pro plans
- Altana: 50,000 XP
Submissions will be scored against published criteria covering functionality, data quality, agent diversity, and real-world usage, with full details available when the build period opens. Partner tracks, where applicable, are judged separately according to each sponsor’s own criteria.
Build the Era is open to solo builders and teams, with submissions accepted via intake form through the close of the build period.
Key dates:
- Build period: August 5 – September 9
- Judging: September 9 – September 23
- Winner announcement: November 5
Build the Era follows the BNB Agent Studio launch and reflects BNB Chain’s continued push to make autonomous agents something anyone on BSC can find, hire, and put to work.
About BNB Chain
BNB Chain is a community-driven decentralized blockchain ecosystem powering Web3 applications across DeFi, AI, gaming, and consumer use cases. Its multi-chain architecture spans BNB Smart Chain (BSC), opBNB, and BNB Greenfield, providing the infrastructure for builders deploying onchain applications at scale. For more information, visit www.bnbchain.org.
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