The Global Stablecoin Hackathon ran from April 11th to May 2nd, 2025, attracting 125 builders who submitted 55 projects centered around creating mini apps using Mento's local stablecoins to extend their reach through MiniPay—a wallet already used by 7M+ people across the Global South.

MiniPay

Freelancers are getting paid — fast.

Over $515,000 in stablecoin payouts to 50,000+ freelance workers (and counting) via MiniPay!

Big shoutout to @mural_pay for powering global payouts that just work

This is how we make crypto useful. And we’re only getting started.

Since its inception, Mento has enabled the creation of multiple algorithmically stable value-backed local stablecoins like cUSD, cEUR, cReal, eXOF, cKES, PUSO, and cCOP—designed for the needs of the Global South, giving developers powerful tools to build solutions that address real-world financial needs in emerging markets. "The fastest path to financial inclusion isn't creating new infrastructure from scratch—it's building on what people already have access to." — Charles (MiniPay)

AlexLWitt.eth

@AlexLWitt

Call to builders:

@MiniPay is the fastest growing non-custodial wallet in the Global South—accounting for 25% of new USDT addresses in Q4 2024 & over 5M+ activations.

Our MiniPay Fund at @verdaventures is actively seeking out investments for MiniPay’s growing Mini Apps

The Challenge

The hackathon's core challenge was clear: create practical, simply, people-first applications that make everyday financial life better in the Global South. Whether helping families send money home, simplifying savings and borrowing, or creating new economic opportunities—the focus was on building solutions with immediate real-world utility.

With $25,000 in prizes up for grabs and the potential to reach millions of users from day one, the incentives were significant for builders looking to create meaningful impact. So as with the scroll and mantle hackathons, I had a play around to see what the next generation of stablecoin builders are shipping + actually submitted this time! This is a random small selection of projects i liked.

Scroll Hackathon & The Open Economy

zkEVM builders showcase DeFi innovations, autonomous wallets & prediction markets at scroll hackathon for the open economy. I built SNEL!

https://paragraph.com

QuestPanda

Product: questpanda.xyz | Twitter

Developer: @leakeynjeru

Homebase: Kenya

A platform connecting growing brands with content creators across the Global South. QuestPanda enables brands to create "quests"—digital marketing tasks that creators can complete to earn stablecoin payments. The system uses MiniPay for instant settlements and transparent tracking of completed tasks.

My take: The web app is clean—I was able to browse available quests and see example payouts. There's a bit of a cold start problem + hard to tell if its real yet. Will need deeper integration with social platforms to work e.g. TikTok, Facebook, etc. The combination of micro-task economics with instant crypto payments could be powerful for both sides of the marketplace, especially in regions where traditional payment infrastructure is lacking or not suited to this specific use case.

3 Wheeler Bike Club

Product: 3wb.club | Twitter

Developer: Kofi, Geeloko, Anita

Homebase: Ghana

Membership club for 3-wheeler bike operators (tuk-tuk/rickshaw drivers) built on ownership, community, and governance principles. Members can pool resources for maintenance, access micro-loans in local stablecoins, and participate in community governance decisions.

My take: This is the kind of targeted, contextual application that shows deep understanding of specific community needs. The integration with MiniPay makes perfect sense for drivers who already handle multiple small transactions daily. These guys are serial winners of the Proof Of Ship programme and demonstrate how regular shipping, progress and updates can/will be rewarded on Celo.

Digipaga

Product: digimercados.com | Twitter

Developers: ozkite.eth, ottox.eth

Homebase: Mexico

A Web3-native BillPay solution that lets users pay utility bills with stablecoins on the Celo blockchain. Whether it's electricity, water, internet, or mobile top-ups, Digipaga works across multiple services. The platform also includes integrated on/off ramps, allowing users to convert between crypto and fiat instantly.

My take: Smooth UI with a clear value proposition. Bill payments are a perfect use case for stablecoins—predictable amounts with clear counterparties. The immediate settlement beats traditional banking waits, and the multi-currency support is especially valuable in regions with volatile local currencies. This team won two different prizes in the hackathon, and had the smoothest presentations, really strong.

Untangled.Finance

Product: untangled.finance | Twitter

Developers: Quan & Mannui @0xtangle2009

Homebase: UK

An on-chain credit infrastructure with three key components: Pool (tokenized private credits), Vault (credit investment execution), and Credio (risk oracle & monitoring). Their MiniPay integration focuses on making micro-loans accessible and manageable for users across emerging markets.

My take: Ambitious project tackling the critical need for better credit infrastructure. The team's approach to tokenizing credit risk and making it tradable could help capital flow more efficiently to underserved regions. Great to see an established venture backed startup in the weeds on a hackathon like this.

Stable Station

Product: stable-station.netlify.app | Twitter

Developer: @papajimjams

Homebase: Kenya

A MiniPay application enabling inflation protection, stablecoin swaps, and personal finance analytics leveraging real-time data from the World Bank and Alpha Vantage APIs. The interface emphasizes simplicity while addressing real-world use cases including savings goals and portfolio rebalancing to protect against currency depreciation and volatility.

My take: Full disclosure—this one's mine! I am building Stable Station with a focus on enabling access to stablecoins with our Diversifi Minipay Mini App a really key mode for us to empower users in high-inflation countries to protect their savings through diversified stablecoin holdings. The analytics dashboard helps visualize currency movements over time, and the goal-based saving features make abstract financial concepts more tangible. Excited to bring that vision to fruition.

Esusu

Product: esusu-one.vercel.app | GitHub

Developer: @EmiriDbest

Homebase: Nigeria

A decentralized application built on Celo that modernizes traditional community savings systems (rotating savings circles). It enables financial inclusion through a 3-in-1 solution combining collaborative savings, personal finance management, and bill payment capabilities.

My take: Compelling digitization of a widely practiced informal finance mechanism. I actually wasn't able to peruse the site though without it trying to connect to my wallet automatically. Would love this disabled! Happy to connect when I am ready to do so. Has a bunch of potential, plus emiri commits daily.

RefiStarter

Product: refistarter.org | Twitter

Developers: ozkite.eth, ottox.eth

Homebase: Mexico

An agentic Swipe-to-Donate app that makes supporting meaningful causes as easy as swiping through a dating app. Users can explore verified blockchain-based impact projects across various categories and donate in stablecoins with just a few taps.

My take: Clever use of familiar mobile interaction patterns to lower the friction for charitable giving. The verification process for projects seems robust, and the stablecoin payments eliminate the need for expensive cross-border donation processing.

Infrastructure Powering the Hackathon

The event was underpinned by several key infrastructure components:

Lemonade: celo.lemonade.social/e/mKSclS6n (collectibles for attendance)
KarmaGap: gap.karmahq.xyz (proof of ship platform tracking project progress)

Workshops & Support

Throughout the hackathon, a series of workshops helped participants get up to speed:

With slides and walkthroughs e.g. these from the hackathon workshop hosted by Philip Raetsch, Partner, Engineering at Mento Labs. The Winners event (and developer relations) hosted by Lena (Celo), Sophie (celo), Alex (verda ventures) & Charles (minipay). With sponsors including @DraperDragon, @borderless_cap, @Tether_Africa, and @portal_hq.

Stable Station | DiversiFi

For my submission, I built DiversiFi—a MiniPay mini-app focused on helping users in emerging markets protect their savings against local currency volatility and inflation.

The core features include:

Dashboard: Real-time analytics showing personal holdings across multiple stablecoins, with currency depreciation metrics
Swap: Simple interface for moving between stablecoins (cUSD, cEUR, cReal, eXOF, cKES, etc.)
Goals: Set saving targets with automatic diversification across currency baskets
Insights: Inflation data, currency performance charts, and personalized recommendations

What worked well:

The API integration with economic data sources
The clean, straightforward UI designed for mobile-first users
The automatic portfolio rebalancing feature

What I'm working on:

Complete integration with all available Mento stablecoins

Simplify each tab for clarity + smoother ui/ux whilst maintaining quality production/design values
Social features for goal sharing & collective goal contributions
Simple visualiser for compounding
Integration of defi/yield offering

Notes

This hackathon highlighted the growing convergence between DeFi and solving real-world financial inclusion challenges. The emphasis on practical applications rather than speculative use cases was refreshing. Many winning projects focused on digitizing existing financial behaviors (savings circles, bill payments, remittances)—a pragmatic approach that increases adoption likelihood. The MiniPay platform's existing 7M+ user base creates a compelling distribution channel for builders, addressing the cold-start problem that plagues many crypto projects.

Supporting writers is beyond the call of duty, reading this far is its own form of glory, appreciate you.

Connect

Farcaster @papa — warpcast.com/@papa

Lens @papajams — lenster.xyz/u/papajams

Twitter @papajimjams — twitter.com/papajimjams

Read

PAPA: paragraph.xyz/@papajams.eth/farcasters-zk-anons

PAPA: https://fountain.ink/p/papajams/p0psmk45tcrp0c1rgd

PAPA: https://app.t2.world/article/clw3f0q9m24698020mcs051nt84

Self Protocol: self.xyz open-source secure ID protocol (ZK proofs)

Divvi Protocol: divvi.xyz track, attribute and reward the builders who drive onchain impact