ETHTokyo 2025: Bitcoin.com Developers Secure Win With AI-Ethics Project

Two Bitcoin.com developers, Vitalik Marincenko and Shreyansh Pandey, won second place at ETHTokyo 2025 with their project Prompt Piper, a tool designed to make AI more cost-efficient and socially responsible. Their success builds on a growing culture of professionalized hackathons across the crypto space.

From Hackathon Guide to Hackathon Winner: Bitcoin.com Duo Triumph in Tokyo

Bitcoin.com developers Vitalik Marincenko and Shreyansh Pandey claimed second place in the AI & Society track at ETHTokyo 2025, marking another milestone in the company’s growing presence on the global hackathon circuit. Their project, Prompt Piper, tackles the high costs of large language models by compressing prompts to reduce token usage, enabling faster and cheaper AI development.

The track focused on ethical AI applications that challenge surveillance capitalism and deliver societal benefit. The win not only earned the duo recognition at ETHTokyo but also the opportunity to present on the main stage at EDCON, one of Ethereum’s largest conferences.

ETHTokyo 2025 drew more than 120 hackers and 42 projects, highlighting Japan’s expanding role in decentralized innovation. Unlike other flagship events, this hackathon was organized independently, offering participants a different pace and format.

For Marincenko, the win was also personal. Having written a widely shared guide on how to win Web3 hackathons and previously competing in ETHGlobal events across Bangkok and beyond, he described Tokyo as both a return and a breakthrough: “It was important to secure a win, as this was my first hackathon outside of ETHGlobal.”

With hackathons professionalizing, offering six-figure prize pools and direct pathways to funding, Prompt Piper’s recognition underscores how these events are increasingly functioning as accelerators for both talent and technology.