EasyA Hackathon Showcases AI Agents as Crypto’s Next Startup Wave

Nearly 1,000 developers packed the EasyA Hackathon during Consensus Miami 2026, but the crowd was less a typical crypto coder gathering and more a preview of the next startup cycle. Teams from Base, Solana, and even Microsoft and Google competed, and the projects that won weren't DeFi tweaks or NFT platforms–they were AI-driven drones, autonomous payment systems, and hardware generation tools. The simple read is that AI agents are the new heatmap for crypto development. The better read is that the hackathon exposed exactly where the application layer is absorbing infrastructure, and which payment rails will matter when machines start settling with each other.