Agentic Commerce on Arc
Build agentic payment experiences with USDC
In this hybrid hackathon powered by Arc and Circle, developers will build the next generation of agentic commerce systems on Arc with USDC. Explore a world where AI agents and web services can pay for APIs, data, compute, and content in dynamic, usage-based ways, while Arc provides stablecoin-native settlement with predictable USDC fees and deterministic, sub-second finality.
This hackathon is supported by Google & Google DeepMind, with a dedicated challenge and $10,000 in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) credits awarded for the best use of Gemini models and Google AI Studio.
📅 January 9 – 24, 2026
• Jan 9 – 23 (Online Phase) – Collaborate and build online with developers and AI innovators from around the world. All projects must be submitted by the end of the online phase on January 23rd.
• Jan 23 (On‑site Build Day – San Francisco, CA) – Selected participants will be invited to an exclusive in‑person session to refine their projects and connect directly with mentors.
• Jan 24 (On‑site Demos & Awards – San Francisco, CA) – Live pitching sessions to a panel of judges and ecosystem partners, followed by the official winner announcement.
Get guidance from Arc and Circle experts through on-site support.
📍 On-site Venue (Jan 23–24):
MindsDB SF AI Collective
3154 17th St, San Francisco, California, USA
🤝 Go solo or team up, it's your flow.
🏆Compete for $10,000 in USDC & $10,000 in GCP Credits.
📍 On-site participation is by invitation only. Travel and accommodation expenses will not be covered.
🧑🏻💻 Secure your spot now - sign up before the Kick-Off Stream!
Arc is the purpose-built L1 blockchain from Circle and serves as the Economic OS for the internet — powering the programmable trust layer and transaction engine where capital, humans, and machines coordinate to drive real economic growth. Arc enables builders and issuers worldwide to power the next era of onchain lending, capital markets, FX, and payments - igniting liquidity across currencies and asset classes.
Media & Community partners
Build the next generation of agentic commerce on Arc using USDC, Gateway, and Circle infrastructure.
Your mission is to design and ship an application, agent, or developer tool that showcases how autonomous systems can coordinate, pay, and transact onchain using Arc and Circle products. You’ll choose one of the tracks below (or naturally align to one) and submit a working demo plus a clear explanation of your use case.
🪙 Best Gateway-Based Micropayments Integration
Create an application that uses Gateway-based micropayments (x402 or otherwise) to enable usage-based payment flows.
🤖 Best Trustless AI AgentBuild a trust-minimized autonomous agent that incorporates identity, policies, guardrails, and onchain treasury logic.
🛒 Best Autonomous Commerce ApplicationDevelop a compelling buyer or seller application demonstrating autonomous commerce powered by onchain payments.
🧰 Best Dev ToolsCreate SDKs, libraries, or infrastructure that accelerate building autonomous commerce experiences with Gateway and Arc.
🧱 Best Vibecoded ApplicationBuild with beta access to Circle's AI App Builder
Note: Access to Circle’s AI App Builder (beta) and products under NDA is limited to participants who request access during registration and complete registration by 12:00 PM PST (San Francisco) / 9:00 PM CET. Eligible participants will receive onboarding instructions directly. After this deadline, the option to request access will be closed, while registration and submissions for all other tracks will remain open.
🎨 Best Product DesignBest UI/UX integration for onchain agentic payments, showcasing seamless transactions and intuitive user flows.
Technology & Access
To build your project, you will use Arc (settlement layer), USDC (value), and Circle developer infrastructure such as Gateway, App Builder, and x402 (web-native payment standard) where available.
Some capabilities will be offered to hackathon participants through an early access program.
🔒 Required Technologies:
• Arc - All transactions settle on Arc, an EVM-compatible Layer-1.
• USDC - USDC is the native gas token and stablecoin on Arc and is used for gas fees, transfers, and smart contract interactions.
🔒 Additional Recommended Technologies:
• Circle Wallets - Recommended core wallet solution for this hackathon.
Use Circle Wallets as the primary wallet infrastructure in your submission to create secure, programmable wallets for users and agents.
• Circle Gateway for a unified USDC balance instantly accessible crosschain
• Circle Bridge Kit for moving USDC across chains
• x402 facilitator
for verifying and submitting x402 payments
(Use the tools that best fit your track and product. Some capabilities, including Arc App Builder and Circle Gateway, will be provided via early access.)
🧪 Early access to new Circle tooling:
As part of this hackathon, participants will have the unique opportunity to gain early access to new Circle tooling designed to enable and accelerate AI-powered development. These capabilities are being made available to hackathon participants ahead of broader release.
More details will be provided in the registration form when you complete your signup. We’re excited to see how you leverage these emerging tools as you innovate on top of Circle’s platform.
🧰 Developer Resources:
• Arc Documentation
• Circle Documentation
• Circle Github
• Circle Developer Account
• Youtube
• Testnet faucet
• Circle Developer Blog
To get started, we highly encourage all participants to create a Circle Developer Account and use the same email they provide during hackathon registration.
Technology partners
Gemini is Google’s family of next-generation multimodal AI modelsdesigned for agent-driven commerce, capable of reasoning across text, images, code, video, and audio. Gemini also supports Function Calling, allowing agents to securely interact with Circle APIs and smart contracts as part of real-world payment and settlement workflows.
Google AI Studio is a browser-based environment where developers and creators can easily explore and prototype with Gemini models - test prompts, refine outputs, and experiment with different modalities before integrating them into real-world applications through the Gemini API.
Challenge:
Build with Gemini models and Google AI Studio to power the intelligence and interface of your agents, then run them on Arc with USDC for agent-driven commerce.
Your project should:
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• Use Gemini (via Google AI Studio or Gemini API) for reasoning, chat, or multimodal understanding, and Function Calling, enabling agents to interact directly with Circle APIs and smart contracts.
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• Run agent-driven or automated workflows that make decisions based on user input, data, or context.
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• Coordinate and settle value on Arc with USDC using Circle infrastructure (e.g. Circle Wallets, Circle CCTP/Bridge Kit, Circle Gateway) as part of your commerce flow (subscriptions, usage-based APIs, tipping, marketplace payments, etc.).
Recommended Gemini Models:
Participants are encouraged to select the Gemini model that best fits their agent use case:
-
Gemini 3 Flash
Recommended for transactional and payment agents. Optimized for speed and low latency, making it ideal for real-time commerce flows such as checkout, payment execution, balance checks, and on-chain confirmations.
Gemini 3 Pro
Designed for advanced reasoning and “Deep Think” capabilities. Ideal for agents that need to negotiate prices, analyze complex transaction histories, manage treasuries, or coordinate multi-step financial workflows.
Gemini 3 Flash
Recommended for transactional and payment agents. Optimized for speed and low latency, making it ideal for real-time commerce flows such as checkout, payment execution, balance checks, and on-chain confirmations.
Gemini 3 Pro
Designed for advanced reasoning and “Deep Think” capabilities. Ideal for agents that need to negotiate prices, analyze complex transaction histories, manage treasuries, or coordinate multi-step financial workflows.
Multimodal Commerce Examples:
Gemini’s multimodal capabilities enable new forms of agent-driven commerce, such as:
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• Using vision models to verify physical goods or delivery proof before releasing a USDC payment
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• Analyzing invoice or receipt images to automate settlement, reconciliation, or refunds on Arc
Access to Technology:
Participants can explore Gemini through two main options - both include free access:
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🌐 Google AI Studio: A free, browser-based IDE for experimenting with Gemini. You can write prompts, test outputs, tweak parameters, and prototype without needing to set up billing or any API keys. Perfect for prototyping and rapid iteration during the hackathon.
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💻 Gemini API: For developers ready to integrate Gemini directly into their apps. The free tier includes a monthly allowance of tokens for text and multimodal inputs/outputs, letting you test and build with Gemini’s core models at no cost. Paid usage only applies for higher-volume or production-level apps.
🔓 Google Cloud Credits:
New Google Cloud accounts receive $300 in free Google Cloud credits, valid for 90 days.
These credits can be used across eligible Google Cloud services, including Gemini API usage, subject to Google Cloud’s standard terms and regional availability.
👉 Learn more about Google Cloud’s free tier
-
Note: After the free credits are used or expire, continued usage of billable services requires enabling billing on your Google Cloud account. Charges only apply if you choose to continue using paid services.
Note: After the free credits are used or expire, continued usage of billable services requires enabling billing on your Google Cloud account. Charges only apply if you choose to continue using paid services.
🚀 How to Get Started
1. Visit the Gemini docs
2. Follow the Quickstart Guide to explore Gemini in AI Studio
4. Build and test your multimodal agents or workflows
📘 Resources:
Technologies & Workshops
Arc is an EVM-compatible Layer-1 blockchain using USDC as native gas, built for stablecoin finance, tokenization, and global payments across scalable & transparent networks.
Circle is a global fintech company behind USDC, providing regulated, transparent, and programmable digital money infrastructure for businesses and developers.
Gemini AI by Google DeepMind is a powerful multimodal model built for intelligent, seamless performance across diverse platforms and devices.
🎓 Workshops
Get inspired and boost your skills with exclusive sessions from our partners and experts. Watch them anytime!
Speaker: Pawel Czech - CEO of NativelyAI & Founder of lablab.ai
Topic: Welcome to LabLab - #1 Ecosystem for AI Builders!
🥈2nd place - 💰 $1,500 in USDC
🥉3rd place - 💰 $1,000 in USDC
🥈2nd place - 💰 $1,500 in USDC
🥈2nd place - ☁️ $3,000 in GCP credits
🥉3rd place - ☁️ $2,000 in GCP credits
Community & Social Channels
Stay connected with the teams behind the hackathon and follow along for updates, highlights, and future opportunities.
X - Community Hub - Discord
⭐On-site prizes
🥇 1st place - 💰$3,000 in USDC
🥈2nd place - 💰 $1,500 in USDC
🥉3rd place - 💰 $1,000 in USDC
⭐Online prizes
🥇 1st place - 💰 $2,500 in USDC
🥈2nd place - 💰 $1,500 in USDC
🥇 1st place - 💰 $500 in USDC
⭐Best use of Gemini
🥈2nd place - ☁️ $3,000 in GCP credits
🥉3rd place - ☁️ $2,000 in GCP credits
What to submit?
📋 Basic Information
• Project Title
• Short Description
• Long Description
• Technology & Category Tags
📸 Cover Image and Presentation
• Cover Image
• Video Presentation
• Slide Presentation
💻 App Hosting & Code Repository
• Public GitHub Repository
• Demo Application Platform
• Application URL
📝 Circle Product Feedback (Required – included in Long Description)
In your Long Description, include a clearly labeled section titled “Circle Product Feedback” covering:
• Which Circle products you used (e.g. Arc, USDC, Circle Wallets, Circle Gateway, Circle CCTP/Bridge Kit, App Builder)
• Why you chose these products for your use case
• What worked well during development
• What could be improved
• Any recommendations to make the product or developer experience more seamless or scalable
Final project submissions will be here on the lablab.ai platform.
Please ensure your submission clearly states which challenge track you participated in and which Circle products were used.
📸 Required: Transaction Flow Demonstration (Video)
Your submission video must clearly demonstrate how a transaction is processed end-to-end using Circle and Arc, including:
• A transaction executed via the Circle Developer Console
• Verification of that transaction on the Arc Block ExplorerThis helps judges validate correct integration and on-chain execution
⭐ Pro Tips for a Strong Submission Straight from Circle
• Provide clear, actionable feedback on Circle products you used
• Explain why you chose specific Circle tools and how they shaped your architecture
• Share recommendations to improve the developer experience, scalability, or workflows
• Be explicit about what worked well vs. what didn’t
For further details and guidance, please visit Submission Guidelines
Hackathon Details
Join lablab.ai hackathon and innovate using the latest models in the market. Discover all the relevant details below.
🗓️ Where and when
The start date of the hackathon is mentioned according to the date specified on the hackathon page, cover and schedule. The hackathon will take place on the lablab.ai platform and lablab.ai Discord server.
🦸🏼♂️ Who can join?
Everyone is welcome to participate, regardless of previous AI or coding experience! We encourage anyone with a passion for AI or an interest in exploring how it can be used in their field to join.
😅 What about teams?
If you don't have a team, don't worry! You can connect with other participants from all over the world on our dashboard or Discord server. We also recommend checking out our Discord server to find teammates and bounce around ideas. You can join the server here.
🛠️ How to participate
The hackathon will take place online on lablab.ai platform and lablab.ai Discord Server. Please register for both in order to participate. To participate click the "Sign up" button at the bottom of the page and read our Hackathon Guidelines and Getting Started Guide.
🧠 Get prepared / Use Lablab.ai to Learn About AI
To get ready for the hackathon, visit our AI Tech pages and read up on all the available technologies. You can also check out our tutorials page for more information on how to use them. Get a head start on your project by using the resources on lablab.ai!
Speakers, Mentors & Judges
Event Schedule
- To be announced
Submitted concepts, prototypes and pitches
Submissions from the teams participating in the Agentic Commerce on Arc event and making it to the end 👊
AryPay
AI-powered stablecoin dashboard built on the Arc Network using Circle’s Programmable Wallets and Gemini 1.5 Flash to automate, audit, and explain USDC transactions for the next generation of agentic commerce.
Arc-Settle AI
AI Vending Machine with autonomous API HTTP 402
A one-sentence hook summarizing your project's core value. Example: "An API that sells AI-generated answers by implementing the HTTP 402 Payment Required standard, enabling AI agents to autonomously pay with USDC on Arc.
Bashman
ARC Invoice
Arc Invoice lets you create secure USDC payment links with smart contract escrow on Arc (Circle L1). Funds are held until release, with auto-release deadlines and easy refunds. Simple, secure, and trustless payments for freelancers and businesses
TumiLabs
AI Jukebox - Agentic Commerce on Arc Hackathon
AI Jukebox is a next-generation agentic commerce platform where autonomous AI agents analyze and prioritize AI-generated songs using USDC micropayments settled on the Arc blockchain, demonstrating the future of autonomous digital commerce.
ai-jukebox
Teams: Agentic Commerce on Arc
Check out the roster and find teams to join
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- Approved
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