GTU Students Return as First-Place Winners From ETH Istanbul

September 12, 2025 - GTU Office of Press and Public Relations

Gebze Technical University (GTU) Blockchain Society successfully represents the university at ETH Istanbul, one of the most prestigious events in the Web3 ecosystem. Held between September 5–7, 2025, the event features an intensive 26-hour hackathon, during which GTU students develop an innovative project named Cryptle. With this project, they win first place in the RISE Company Bounties – Track 2: Open Track category.

The software team, consisting of GTU students Umut Satır, Bengisu Duru Göksu, Selin Bardakçı, and Yusuf Alperen Çelik, designed a skill-based word game inspired by Wordle. The game was developed on the high-performance RISE EVM and offers a completely fair and reliable infrastructure.

In Cryptle, players stake ETH to participate and race against time to solve the puzzle. Winners share rewards from the prize pool, while the lost ETH is returned to the ecosystem to further grow the pool. The project also includes a duel mode, allowing two players to compete against each other on the same local network. With this feature, the first version of the game was released in both single-player and duel modes. Future updates aim to introduce multiplayer modes, leaderboards, and tournaments.

The 26-hour hackathon marathon, where projects were developed and presented, brought together leading developers and communities from the Web3 world. The event provided students with an important platform to put their theoretical knowledge into practice and produce projects that attracted global attention.