A hackathon is a token.

1. 1

   Launch

   The organizer launches a token on pump.fun (Solana) with the hackathon's name and ticker, optionally seeding the prize pool with SOL.

2. 2

   Fees accrue

   Every trade pays a creator fee. 90% of every claim goes to that hackathon's prize wallet. The other 10% funds buybacks of $HLAUNCH, HackaLaunch's own token.

3. 3

   Build and submit

   Anyone with an X account submits a GitHub repo, a demo video and a description before the submission deadline.

4. 4

   Holders vote

   When submissions close, a 24-hour token-weighted vote picks the winner. One wallet, one vote, weighted by tokens held.

5. 5

   Winner paid, forever

   The pool is sent to the winner's payout address. Every future fee claim keeps flowing to the same address.

Launching creates a Pump coin on Solana mainnet. Fill in the name, ticker, image, description, rules and the submission window (in hours). Voting always opens exactly at the deadline.

What the organizer signs

One Solana transaction that creates the pump.fun coin and, if you set a sponsorship, transfers it to the prize wallet. You sign it in your wallet; we never hold your key.

Prize wallet custody

HackaLaunch generates a dedicated prize-pool wallet per hackathon, sets it as the token's creator, and holds its key encrypted so fees can be claimed and paid out automatically. The wallet is single-purpose: it only ever receives sponsorship and creator fees, and only ever sends the platform share and winner payouts. Its address and every transaction are public on the explorer from the hackathon page.

Every creator-fee claim is split on-chain the moment it lands in the prize wallet.

90% goes to the hackathon's prize pool. The other 10% funds buybacks of $HLAUNCH, HackaLaunch's own token.

Sponsorship sent at launch is 100% prize pool. Prize pool figures on the site are sponsorship + 90% of claimed fees, converted to USD at the current SOL price.

Submissions are open from launch until the submission deadline. One submission per X account per hackathon; you can delete and resubmit while the window is open.

• A linked X account (sign in with X, or link one to a wallet session)
• A public GitHub repository
• A video link demoing the project (YouTube, Loom, X, anything public)
• A short description of what you built
• A Solana payout address, where the prize and all future fees go if you win

Organizers can extend the deadline while the hackathon is live, but never shorten it.

• Voting opens at the submission deadline and lasts 24 hours.
• A holder snapshot is taken at the deadline. Only addresses in the snapshot can vote.
• Vote weight is token-weighted: weight = min(snapshot balance, current balance). Selling after the snapshot reduces your weight; buying after it does not increase it.
• One vote per wallet. Voting is a signed message, not a transaction, so it costs nothing. You may re-vote while voting is open; the latest vote counts.
• The submission with the highest total weight wins. If there are no submissions, the pool stays in the prize wallet and the hackathon ends without a winner.

A worker sweeps every prize wallet roughly every two hours: it claims pending creator fees from pump.fun, forwards the platform share, and, once a winner is set, sends the remaining balance to the winner's payout address. This never stops. A hackathon that finished a year ago still pays its winner every time someone trades the token.

Each wallet keeps a small gas reserve (0.005 SOL) so it can always pay for its own claim and transfer transactions. Everything above the reserve is paid out.

Tokens are standard pump.fun coins on Solana mainnet. The hackathon's prize wallet is set as the token's creator, so pump.fun's creator fees accrue to it. The worker claims them with collect_creator_fee on each sweep and splits the proceeds on-chain. Everything works the same before and after the coin graduates.