The MicroPay team, one of five finalists and a winner of the Built Prize at the hackathon. Image source: @PolkadotAPAC on X
[Zurich, Switzerland – October 6th, 2025] – The fusion of AI and blockchain reached a new milestone at a 36-hour hackathon at the TOKEN2049, Asia’s leading crypto conference. Among the event’s standout projects, MicroPay, a system enabling cross-chain micropayments for AI agents using Hyperbridge, a Polkadot-based rollup, was named a category winner for its innovative use of Hyperbridge, a Polkadot-based rollup. Hyperbridge uses novel technology to address the security and interoperability challenges of traditional bridges, which have collectively lost over $2.8 billion to hacks.
This victory highlights a critical role cross-chain bridges play toward a truly autonomous, agentic internet where machines can transact and collaborate without human oversight.
The rise of agentic economies where AI agents autonomously pay for APIs, data, or services is already underway, thanks to foundational work by protocols like Coinbase’s x402. However, a major hurdle has persisted: cross-chain compatibility. Imagine an AI agent (the client) with funds on Base that needs to pay an API provider (the server) who only accepts Ethereum. Current systems require a manual bridging process which is slow, expensive, and mirrors the friction of international bank transfers. Without a seamless solution, agentic payments remain impractical, stifling the growth of AI-blockchain integration.
MicroPay solves this by integrating modifications of x402 with Hyperbridge, a Polkadot interoperability coprocessor. Hyperbridge enables secure, on-chain verification of cross-chain messages using advanced consensus proofs like BEEFY and zk-light clients. This unique architecture allows developers to query and send messages to disconnected chains as if they were local, while simultaneously dodging the vulnerabilities of legacy bridges. By distributing validation across Polkadot’s core parachain security, Hyperbridge achieves full node security, up to $3 billion, without compromising on speed or cost.
In a live demonstration, the MicroPay system validated Hyperbridge’s efficiency. The MicroPay process begins with the AI agent making an initial micropayment on its native chain (e.g., Base Sepolia) using the X-402 standard. To offset high bridging fees and delays, MicroPay automatically batches multiple micropayments into larger volumes for settlement. Hyperbridge then converts the EVM tokens from the client’s chain to the server’s preferred chain (e.g., Ethereum Sepolia). This critical step involves secure, on-chain verification of state transitions. Funds are bridged to the server’s address, enabling immediate, low-cost data access for the agent.
Hyperbridge was the ideal choice for this technology because of the way it enables the application to query other chains like they are next door and even so with a high economic security. It currently support over 12 EVM chains like Base, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon and others. Its architecture enables efficient data sharing, asset tokenization, and cross-chain payments without centralized intermediaries. For AI agents, this translates to high-speed, low-cost responses. This is a critical factor for real-time interactions in autonomous economies.
MicroPay’s win underscores Hyperbridge’s crucial role in enabling a verifiable, multichain future. The protocol is the brainchild of Polytope Labs co-founders, Seun Lanlege and David Salami, former engineers from the Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystems. They designed Hyperbridge as an interoperability coprocessor that offloads complex computations off-chain, bringing only cryptographically secure proofs back on-chain for verification.
This revolutionary design is powered by the Interoperable State Machine Protocol (ISMP), which acts as an HTTPS-like API for secure cross-chain requests. This allows Hyperbridge to inherit Polkadot’s pooled economic security, providing the highest security guarantees available. The platform has also received significant validation, having secured $5.6 million in seed funding, led by the Polkadot Ecosystem Fund and with support from investors like Web3 Foundation and Scytale Digital.
Recent milestones have rapidly cemented its industry position. The platform is already connected to over 14 chains including Polygon, Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, and BNB Chain. Furthermore, Hyperbridge, now the native bridge of Polkadot, has been playing a key role in the Polkadot DeFi Singularity initiative which is deepening the footprint of DOT, Polkadot’s native token.
As blockchain ecosystems mature, solutions like MicroPay demonstrate how robust interoperability protocols can drive adoption. Hyperbridge’s ongoing expansion positions it as a key infrastructure for verifiable cross-chain activity. This technology is poised to empower diverse applications in DeFi, gaming, and data markets, where agents will need to pay for APIs, compute, or oracles without human oversight.
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About Hyperbridge
Hyperbridge is the world’s safest bridge; it replaces multisigs and MPC solutions, which have been at the centre of the largest bridge hacks with secure cryptographic (consensus & storage) proofs. It’s already connected to over 14 chains, including Ethereum, Base, BNB chain, etc. It enables mission-critical cross-chain user experiences that do not have the luxury of centralized security models, like stablecoins and other RWA issuers, DAOs and cross-chain governance.
About Polkadot
Polkadot is the powerful, secure core of Web3, providing a shared foundation that unites some of the world’s most transformative apps and blockchains. Polkadot offers advanced modular architecture that allows devs to easily design and build their own specialized blockchain projects, pooled security that ensures the same high standard for secure block production across all connected chains and apps connected to it, and robust governance that ensures a transparent system where everyone has say in shaping the blockchain ecosystem for growth and sustainability. With Polkadot, users are not just participants, they’re co-creators with the power to shape its future.
