What to Expect at ETHGlobal Tokyo 2026

時The weekend, hour by hour

Friday, September 25 — registration and check-in 13:00–22:00 at Toranomon Hills Forum (4F + 5F) · dinner at 18:30 · Opening Ceremony at 20:00 · hacking starts 20:00–21:00.

Saturday, September 26 — submissions open in the morning (resubmit freely until the deadline) · workshops · the Pragma conference runs in a separate ticketed area (hackers $49 · network pass $29 without food — hackers do not get in without a Pragma ticket).

Sunday, September 27 — submissions due 09:00 · live judging 09:30–12:00 (4F) · finalists notified around 15:00, briefed, and demoed on the main stage · closing ~15:00–15:30.

The venue stays open 24/7 all weekend — napping areas with air mattresses (no showers), snacks and drinks around the clock, a photo booth, and a mentor station in the second hacker space: look for the yellow vests — two to three mentors present at all times.

道Two tracks — and continuity is real

The dashboard asks every team to choose: “Building from scratch” or “Continuity” — an existing project you expand. Either way, only work done in the 36 hours counts.

Partners offer separate prize sets per track. ENS, for example: “Best Use of ENSv2” $6k ($3k/$2k/$1k) on the scratch track, and “Integrate ENSv2 into an existing project” $2k/$1k/$1k on continuity. 1inch Aqua posts prizes on both tracks; Sui is scratch-only. If a partner doesn't list a continuity prize, there is no prize from them on that track — and continuity finalists are judged in separate rooms from scratch finalists.

Six partners in all: World, 1inch, ENS, Uniswap Foundation, Sui, and CurveGrid — roughly $75k in partner prizes, plus ETHGlobal's own top-team prizes.

機The AI policy — official, and unusually warm

From the Q&A — can we use AI to generate test code? “100% completely fine… even if you barely write any code, that's still fine, but give attribution; if using spec-driven development, put all the spec files in your repository.” (For planning and ideation, they don't recommend it — an opinion, not a rule.)

One warning travels with the encouragement: don't submit “some AI slop” for the ~100-character short description, the long description, or the how-it's-made — write them properly, because “this is what you're judged upon.”

技The craft of submission

• GitHub connect is required (own the repo or org, or be a member) — link up to 5 repos, one primary.
• Commit frequently — “not one single commit at the end… we review all winning projects.” Open source throughout the event: built in public.
• You'll need: a ~100-char short description · a long description · how-it's-made · at least 3 screenshots · a logo · a cover image · tech tags.
• Demo video: 2–4 minutes, hard limits — the system auto-rejects shorter or longer · at least 720p (the format must match) · voiceover with audio, no music · editing allowed — it doesn't have to be one shot. Mandatory for the top-10 finalist track, strongly recommended for everyone: external partner reviewers watch it, and it's the fallback when demos break.
• Deployed public URL required for finalists — Vercel or your own server, but clickable. Testnets are fine: “most people use Sepolia or Base Sepolia”; mainnet is almost never required.
• Per-partner application: link the exact line of code or file where you integrated their tech, rate the integration experience, and give constructive feedback — “they want it; it increases your chances; it helps the ecosystem.”
• Submit early — submissions open Saturday morning; the stake refund requires a submission; resubmissions are unlimited until the Sunday 09:00 cutoff; only checked-in-in-person teammates count at submission (remote members get kicked).
• Teams of 1–5 · one team · one project — one coherent project; multiple partner integrations inside it are fine. Third-party tooling is unrestricted (Alchemy, thirdweb, scaffold-eth, RPCs…); partner tech is only needed for that partner's track.

審Sunday judging

Partner judging: optional booth demos per nominated partner — at most 3 partner tracks (the anti-bounty-hunting rule; you may integrate more, but only three count).

Finalist judging: 09:30–12:00 in an assigned room — 2 judges plus volunteers, a 4-minute demo and a 3-minute Q&A. Go early; there's a demo sticker and a team photo after.

The criteria: technicality · originality · practicality · usability · and the “blown away” factor (the rubric lives on the dashboard info pages). The top 10 demo on the main stage at closing. Finalist perks: a year of ETHGlobal Plus free — normally $828 a year, every event included — plus the on-chain finalist pack.

福Packs, perks & the man at the inbox

• Hacker pack (mint it!): Discord access · discounts · faucet boost 0.05 → 0.1 SepETH/day · and a free ENS domain for one year after submitting a project.
• Builder pack (second tier): 0.5 SepETH/day · $100 Circle credits · 6 months of Notion Pro.
• Pioneer pack (finalists and $1k+ winners): 1 SepETH/day · $5k AWS credits.
• The faucet: 16 chains, default 0.05/day — ethglobal.com/faucet.

And if anything is unclear: hello@ethglobal.com reaches Pascal himself — “I'm the one managing this email” — responsive, and also on the event Discord.

図The venue map

4F: the main stage (opening, closing, Pragma) and the finalist judging rooms (daytime access only). 5F: the hacking spaces, the partner booths at their green tables — World, 1inch, ENS, Uniswap, Sui, CurveGrid — the spotlight teams (past winners), the mentor station, registration, and the photo booth. A printed venue map is handed out at check-in.