Announcing Colosseum Eternal and Solana’s 2025 Hackathon Schedule

Colosseum grows the crypto ecosystem by organizing global, online hackathons that generate waves of product experimentation on a consistent basis. In line with that mission, we run 2 hackathons annually for the Solana Foundation and accept a batch of winners into Colosseum’s accelerator following each competition. In less than a year, our crypto hackathons have resulted in thousands of active developers, 2,430 product submissions, and over 50 venture-backed startups (about half of which we have backed through our own venture fund).

However, technological evolution and innovation never stops, especially in crypto. Developers and startup founders are building high-potential projects at all times during the year, and deserve ongoing opportunities for recognition and support. For that purpose, we are launching a new program, running in-between hackathons, to expand Colosseum’s ability to accelerate a larger wave of elite crypto founders.

Introducing Colosseum Eternal

Eternal is a perpetual challenge where at any point throughout the year, builders can initiate their own 4-week development sprint, and submit a product online to be considered for our next accelerator cohort and the accompanying $250,000 in pre-seed funding.

In addition, all developers who submit to Eternal will be eligible to receive the recurring Eternal Award. The winner will receive a $25,000 USDC grant and will be chosen by a dedicated judging panel on a semi-annual basis.

Eternal Evaluation Process

We recommend checking out our FAQs for more details. However to summarize, all builders submitting to Eternal will be required to:

1. Sign up for a Colosseum account. Once logged in, you’ll have access to Colosseum’s Find a Cofounder directory, product forums, and the Eternal dashboard.
2. Click the stopwatch button within the Eternal dashboard to initiate the 4 week development sprint. Submissions will be due through the portal at the end of the 4th week.
3. At the end of each week during the sprint, builders will also need to submit a brief update that includes a loom.com or YouTube.com video recording explaining what they prioritized and shipped that week.
4. During the last week of the sprint, builders need to submit similar materials to the list required at the end of our hackathons. This includes a product name, short product description, team background, the product GitHub repo (if closed source you’ll need to grant Colosseum access privately), a video pitch presentation (max 3 minutes long), a video technical walkthrough (under 3 minutes as well), and anything else that is critical to understanding the vision for the product.
5. Eternal submissions will be reviewed on a first come first serve basis by the Colosseum team initially. We may reach out to you to schedule an interview call to learn more about your product submission and gather more information.
6. Throughout each quarter, a shortlist of products will be evaluated by the judging panel. The small panel consists of previous hackathon winners, leading Solana ecosystem founders, and the Colosseum team.
7. The Eternal Award will be granted to the product team whose product innovation is best positioned to drive the entire Solana ecosystem forward. Again, this prize will be granted on a semi-annual basis in-between our 2 primary hackathons.
8. Founders will be notified of rejection or accelerator acceptance/pre-seed funding offers within 14 days of submission.

Solana’s 2025 Hackathon Schedule

Colosseum Eternal is not a substitute for the 2 primary hackathons we run on behalf of the Solana Foundation and broader crypto community. The Eternal challenge and dashboard will only be available when we are not running those 2 competitions. 

In fact, if you’re highly motivated to receive pre-seed funding from Colosseum and join our next accelerator cohort, you can increase your chances by first participating in one of our hackathons. Part of our investment evaluation process is to see founders explore the idea maze and consistently iterate within a market vertical they’re passionate about.

In addition to launching Colosseum Eternal, we are also excited to share the dates of the 2 Solana Foundation hackathons we will be running in 2025.

The Solana Breakout Hackathon will run from April 14 through May 16. 2025. Information on tracks, sponsors, prizes, and more will be made public a few weeks prior to the start date of the hackathon. The second global hackathon [redacted] will commence on September 25 and end on October 30th, 2025.

Unlike in previous years, we intend to keep these hackathon dates consistent for 2026, 2027, and beyond. We hope that this schedule transparency, as well as the ongoing Eternal challenge, will further ignite Solana’s community of developers to experiment onchain, compete, and launch breakout startups that accelerate crypto closer towards global adoption.