There were over 8,000 participants, over 1,000 project submissions, and over 95 countries represented from around the globe.

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Ripe Wins 4th Place in the DeFi/Payments Track

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Our startup, which enables the use of cryptocurrencies, particularly stablecoins, to send fiat currency to popular e-wallets like GrabPay and GCash, entered the DeFi/Payments track of the hackathon. After an intense few weeks of development and refining our presentation, we were honored to be selected as the 4th place winner in the category.

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In addition to to our win in the global DeFi category, Ripe also participated in both the Saros Super App and The Philippines-based side tracks, where it was a winner in both, and "Most Innovative Project" in the Philippines.

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Renaissance was an amazing opportunity to not only put our skills and ideas to the test on a big stage, but also to meet and connect with so many other talented developers and entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. The energy and innovation on display from all the participants was truly inspiring.

Beyond just the competition itself, one of the biggest benefits was the chance to get introductions to various companies and organizations interested in partnering with us. As a young startup, these connections are invaluable as we continue to raise funding and scale our solution to bring everyday crypto payments to more users across Southeast Asia and beyond.

We came away from this experience with an even more heightened sense of motivation and validation for the real-world impact our service can have. Seeing the high quality of all the blockchain projects at the event really drove home how much potential there is in this space.

A huge thank you to Colosseum, the coordinators, for putting together such an incredible event. In the meantime, we'll be following up on the many great connections we made as we continue our mission to make digital payments more accessible and empowering through crypto rails.

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