Bybit concludes first Inter-College Hackathon to uncover tech talent in UAE

One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Bybit, has concluded its landmark inaugural Inter-College Hackathon at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has witnessed massive student interest and participation.

Specifically, the 63 participants of the hackathon showcased their skills and creativity in blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) applications and competed for the top prize in the ‘CryptoAI BUILDER Challenge,’ according to Bybit’s press release shared with Finbold on November 7.

Competing in new tech

As it happens, the competition featuring 15 teams ended with six winners in two categories – Literacy and Security – each with three best-performing teams that managed to stand out with their innovative solutions to real-world problems in the fintech and crypto sector.

In the Literacy track, the team ‘Cyber ciphers’ emerged as the victors, followed by ‘Team 7’ and ‘Code Comet (Sato_Bot),’ whereas the Security track saw ‘WhiteHats’ claim the top honors, with ‘Cyber Guardians’ and ‘DEDSEC’ coming in second and third, respectively.

Notably, the hackathon was part of the crypto trading platform’s efforts to become the global Crypto Ark and has included a prize pool in the amount of 80,000 AED (United Arab Emirates Dirham) – roughly $21,780 – as well as the establishment of the Bybit Scholarship at the university.

Commenting on the event’s success, Bybit’s co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou shared his own and the company’s excitement around the talent and skills demonstrated by the younger generations, as well as the goals for the future of technology:

“Our partnership with AUS and the remarkable talent displayed during the hackathon underlines our belief that the youth are the keystones of technological innovation. (…) We are proud to support these young minds who have demonstrated exceptional skills and vision, reflective of our mission to be the world’s Crypto Ark and pave a safe journey towards Web3.”

Echoing Zhou’s words, Dr. Imran Zualkernan, professor and head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the AUS, pointed out the importance of the above technologies for the UAE’s economy, adding that the hackathon has offered an extraordinary chance for students in this country to learn and create.

Bybit’s other accomplishments

Elsewhere, Bybit’s development efforts have recently secured it the top rating in the most recent analysis by the crypto industry research company CCData, becoming the first and only exchange of its kind to score the highest marks in both spot and derivative trading categories as Finbold reported on November 3.

On top of that, it has earlier listed PayPal’s (NASDAQ: PYPL) stablecoin PYUSD and launched spot trading for its clients, in addition to establishing its Wealth Management product and partnering with Paradigm, the largest institutional liquidity network for crypto derivatives.

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