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Announcement

ETHGlobal New York 2025 Hackathon Recap: Fern API, Prize Winners, and Builder Insights

Sep 3, 2025

From August 15 to 17, hundreds of developers, designers, and builders came together in New York City for ETHGlobal New York 2025, one of the most anticipated Ethereum hackathons of the year. Over an intense three days, teams explored bold ideas across finance, consumer applications, and AI.

For Fern, the event was a chance to see what happens when global payments infrastructure meets real builder creativity. Our prize track challenged participants to integrate the Fern API in innovative ways, and the results were both practical and inspiring.

Fern Prize Winners

Best Finance App on Fern ($1,750): PDFi

PDFi reimagined the PDF. For decades, PDFs have been static documents. PDFi turned them into live financial tools by enabling cryptocurrency transactions directly inside the file. With Fern powering the payments layer, invoices and contracts can now be settled in just one click.

Best Consumer App on Fern ($1,700): Tea on Chain

Tea on Chain built an anonymous onchain app where women can review men they have dated and check potential matches. The platform safeguards privacy with zero knowledge proofs and discourages abuse through a PYUSD staking system. It looks like a simple Web2 application on the surface, but under the hood it is fully Web3 and runs on Fern’s infrastructure.

Best AI App on Fern ($1,550): The42

The42 is a conversational AI client that offers pay as you go access to multiple large language models. Instead of paying a flat subscription, users can spend a few cents per request in stablecoins. By integrating Fern micropayments, The42 enables real time streaming payments that make AI more affordable and globally accessible.

Additional Standout Projects

Two additional projects impressed the Fern team for their creativity and potential:
  • Noah is a crypto inheritance solution that ensures funds can always reach designated beneficiaries, with Fern powering seamless offramps.

  • Gen Pay is a smart payments platform that converts plain language into personalized crypto payment plans, simplifying global transactions with Fern’s APIs.

These builds show the wide variety of use cases Fern can support, from consumer applications to fintech innovation.

Key Learnings from ETHGlobal New York 2025

The hackathon confirmed a few important insights about the Fern API:

  • Integration is fast. Teams were able to go live with Fern in less than a day, getting payments running almost instantly.

  • Builders want a sandbox and testnet mode. This request came up repeatedly, and we are making it a priority.

  • The scope of Fern use cases is expanding. From AI apps to consumer platforms, builders continue to find new ways to use Fern infrastructure.

Looking Ahead

ETHGlobal New York showed that demand for seamless global payments is only growing. Builders want tools that reduce complexity so they can focus on their product, not on the friction of moving money across borders.

At Fern, our mission is to provide that infrastructure. We are committed to making global payments fast, flexible, and simple to integrate for any builder.

Ready to build? Start here.

Resources for Builders

Congratulations to all the winners and participants who made ETHGlobal New York 2025 a success. We cannot wait to see what the next wave of builders will create with Fern!