The Micropay Team was one of five finalists and won a prize at the hackathon. Image source: x @polkadotapac on x
(Slich, Switzerland – October 6, 2025) – The fusion of AI and blockchain reached a new milestone in a 36-hour hackathon at Token2049, the leading crypto conference in Asia. Among the event's outstanding projects, Micropay, a system that uses Hyperbridge, a Polkadot-based rollup, to enable cross-chain micropayments for AI agents, has been named category winners for innovative use of Hyperbridge, a polkadot-based rollup. Hyperbridge uses new technology to address the security and interoperability challenges of traditional bridges.
This victory underscores the important role that cross-chain bridges play towards a truly autonomous agent Internet, where machines can trade and cooperate without human supervision.
The rise of an agent economy in which AI agents pay autonomously for APIs, data or services is already underway thanks to basic work with protocols such as Coinbase's X402. But a major hurdle continues: cross-chain compatibility. Imagine an AI agent (client) with funds at a base that needs to pay to an API provider (server) that only accepts Ethereum. Current systems require slow and expensive manual bridging processes, reflecting the friction of international bank transfers. Without a seamless solution, agent payments are unrealistic and will curb the growth of AI-Blockchain integration.
Micropay solves this by integrating the X402 changes with Hyperbridge, Polkadot's interoperability coprocessor. Hyperbridge uses advanced consensus proofs such as Beefy and ZK-Light clients to enable secure and chain verification of cross-chain messages. This unique architecture allows developers to avoid legacy bridge vulnerabilities while also allowing them to query and send messages to disconnected chains as if local. By distributing validation across Polkadot's core Parachain security, Hyperbridge delivers full node security of up to $3 billion without compromising speed or cost.
In the live demonstration, the micropay system verified the efficiency of the hyperbridge. The micropay process begins with the AI agent creating initial micropayments on a native chain (such as base seporeia) using the X-402 standard. To offset high bridging fees and delays, MicroPay automatically batches multiple micropayments into larger volumes. Hyperbridge converts EVM tokens from a chain of clients into a preferred chain of servers (such as Ethereum Sepolia). This critical step involves secure on-chain verification of state transitions. Funds are buried in server addresses, allowing agents to access instant, low-cost data.
Hyperbridge was an ideal choice for this technology as it allowed applications to query other chains such as those next to them, and even more economically secure, allowing applications to query other chains. Currently, it supports over 12 EVM chains, including Base, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon. Its architecture allows efficient data sharing, asset tokenization and cross-chain payments without intensive intermediaries. For AI agents, this translates to a fast, low-cost response. This is a key factor in real-time interactions in an autonomous economy.
Micropay's victory highlights the key role of Hyperbridge in enabling a verifiable multi-chine future. The protocol is the brainchild of Seun Lanlege and David Salami, co-founders of Polytope Labs, former engineers in the Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystem. They designed Hyperbridge as an interoperability coprocessor, off-chaining complex calculations, and only delivering secure proofs encrypted on-chain for verification.
This innovative design features Interoperable State Machine Protocol (ISMP) that acts as an HTTPS-like API for secure cross-chain requests. This allows Hyperbridge to inherit the pooled economic security of Polka Dots and provide the best security guarantees available. The platform has secured $5.6 million in seed funding led by the Polkadot Ecosystem Fund and has undergone significant validation with support from investors such as the Web3 Foundation and Scytale Digital.
Recent milestones have rapidly solidified their industry position. The platform is already connected to more than 14 chains, including polygon, Ethereum, Optimism, arbitrum, base and BNB chains. Additionally, Hyperbridge, now a native bridge for Polka Dot, plays an important role in the Polka Dot dedimularity initiative, which deepens the footprint of the dot, the native token of Polka Dot.
As the blockchain ecosystem matures, solutions like Micropay show how robust interoperability protocols can drive adoption. Hyperbridge's continuous expansion is positioned as a critical infrastructure for verifiable cross-chain activity. The technology is poised to power diverse applications in the Defi, gaming and data markets where agents need to pay for APIs, calculations or Oracles without human supervision.
###
About Hyperbridge
Hyperbridge is the safest bridge in the world. This replaces multisig and MPC solutions. These are at the heart of the biggest bridge hacks with proof of secure encryption (consensus and storage). It has already been connected to more than 14 chains, including Ethereum, Base, BNB chains and more. This allows for mission-critical cross-chain user experiences that do not involve the luxury of centralized security models such as Stablecoins and other RWA publishers, DAOS, and cross-chain governance.
About Polka Dot
Polkadot is the powerful and secure core of Web3, providing a shared foundation that integrates some of the world's most transformative apps and blockchains. Polkadot offers an advanced modular architecture that allows developers to easily design and build their own specialized blockchain projects, pooled security that ensures the same high standard for secure block production with all connected chains and apps connected to it, and robust governance that ensures transparent systems that make everyone form a blockchain ecosystem for growth and sustainability. In Polkadot, users are not just participants, but co-creators with the power to shape the future.
