TL;DR

• Runs March 27 → April 19, 2026 (4-week online hackathon)
• Invite-only for US university blockchain clubs, $10K + follow-on support
• Build across AI, DeFi, infra, or open track 
• Top teams pitch at BNB Demo Day during Consensus Miami, with travel and accommodation covered.

BNB Hack: US College Edition Is Open

A lot of student builders are closer than they think.

They already have the technical base, the curiosity, and usually a few ideas worth testing. What’s missing is often the right moment to stop circling around an idea and actually ship something with it.

That’s what BNB Hack: US College Edition is for.

This is a 4-week online hackathon for university students in the US, running from March 27 to April 19, 2026. It’s built for students who want to move past mock concepts and start building real products on BNB Chain.

Apply here: https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/bnbcollegedition/detail 

Who It’s For

This hackathon is invite-only, and it’s open to registered blockchain clubs at whitelisted universities in the US. Students join through their campus club, which keeps the format focused and gives universities a stronger role in how teams show up and build.

If your club isn’t registered already, fill the Club Interest Form.

How It Works

The format is simple.

Students build over four weeks, submit a working project, and go through judging on DoraHacks. Projects need to show actual onchain proof on BSC, along with the usual basics like a public repo, demo, and setup instructions. Community voting is also part of the process on DoraHacks, alongside formal judging.

The point is not to show up with the most polished pitch deck. It’s to build something real enough to test, demo, and defend.

What You Can Build

The hackathon includes four tracks:

• AI × Onchain
• DeFi and Financial Tools
• Dev Tooling and Infrastructure
• Open Track for projects that don’t neatly fit the others but still meet the submission requirements

That gives teams enough direction to get moving, without boxing everyone into the same kind of project.

Some teams will go deep on autonomous systems with verifiable onchain execution. Others will build practical financial tools, infrastructure, or something harder to categorize but still useful. That spread matters because good student projects rarely all come from the same mold.

Prizes and What Comes After

There is a $10,000 prize pool for the hackathon.

For the strongest teams, that’s only part of the upside.

Top projects can also get up to $50,000 in Kickstart Ecosystem Support, fast-track interviews for MVB through EASY Residency, and visibility toward the $1B Builder Fund. Winners are also set to pitch at the next BNB Demo Night during Consensus Miami, with travel and accommodation covered.

That changes the tone of the whole thing a bit. It’s not just about submitting for a leaderboard spot. The better projects have somewhere to go after.

Built Around Campus Momentum

This hackathon sits alongside the ongoing BNB Chain university roadshow across the US, including the campus roadshow already running through schools like NYU, UPenn, Harvard, and Berkeley.

So teams aren’t building in isolation. There’s already activity at the campus level, and this extends it into something tangible.

Apply Now

If you’re already building, this is a chance to push something further.

If you’re not, this is a clean starting point.

Applications are open:

https://dorahacks.io/hackathon/bnbcollegedition/detail