The Office of Justin Sun announced a pilot program for the Justin Sun Prize in collaboration with MathDB, a mathematical research platform developed by Caltech professor Tony Yue Yu and his team. The announcement was dated October 26, 2026, in Geneva, Switzerland.
According to the announcement, the Justin Sun Prize was established with the aim of becoming the "Nobel Prize of the AI Era," framed as a response to changes in how scientific research is conducted and rewarded in a more decentralized, formalized and machine-driven environment. Problem-level awards can reach $1 million, subject to applicable award terms and eligibility requirements.
How the submission process works
Under the collaboration, MathDB will run a submission and review process. The platform will accept solution submissions, verify Lean formalizations and review expository materials. The Justin Sun Prize will separately assess eligibility, attribution, priority and applicable award terms.
The pilot covers 50 problems across four award levels, with problem-level prize pools of up to $1 million depending on the problem. The highest tier includes P versus NP, the Riemann Hypothesis, Yang-Mills Existence and Mass Gap, the Hodge Conjecture, Global Langlands functoriality and the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture, among others. The full list of participating problems and award terms will be available through MathDB and the Justin Sun Prize.
Rewards extend to formalization and exposition
The pilot is designed to reward not only solutions but also accessible communication of those solutions. The reward is divided into three categories:
- 50% for the mathematical solution
- 30% for Lean formalization
- 20% for qualifying exposition
What the organizers say
"AI is changing the speed at which mathematics can be explored, but speed alone is not scientific progress," said Justin Sun, founder of the Justin Sun Prize. "The opportunity is to create a framework where human insight and machine intelligence can work together without compromising rigor. Working with MathDB brings mathematical discovery and machine-verifiable proof into the same process, which we believe can help define a more rigorous model for future discoveries."
"Solving a fundamental math problem often leads to much more than an answer to the original question," said Yu. "The process can reveal unexpected connections, introduce powerful tools and open entirely new directions of research. These developments can have an influence that extends across generations and disciplines. The Justin Sun Prize celebrates this spirit of exploration by drawing attention to challenging problems, supporting researchers who pursue them, and encouraging public dissemination of knowledge. Our collaboration with the Justin Sun Prize is grounded in the belief that pursuing fundamental research through decentralized, rigorous and verifiable approaches can accelerate the pace of discovery and scientific progress, and contribute to the advancement of human civilization."
Eligibility and compliance
All awards are subject to full eligibility verification, compliance with anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, and the official program rules published at the prize website. Submission requirements and review procedures will also be made available through MathDB and the Justin Sun Prize.
About MathDB and the prize
MathDB is described as a large-scale community database of mathematical definitions, theorems, conjectures and open problems, intended to make mathematical knowledge easier to organize, connect and build upon. The project combines Lean formalization and automated proof verification with mathematical explanations and supporting research materials. Yu and his team at the California Institute of Technology will lead the scientific aspects of the pilot.
The Justin Sun Prize is described as an academic initiative supporting advances in mathematics, formal verification and AI-assisted scientific discovery. It is structured around the principle that mathematical work should be judged by the strength, rigor and verifiability of the proof itself rather than the prestige or reputation of those submitting it, with openness, public benefit and open-source access listed as guiding principles.
The Office of Justin Sun supports Sun's global business, philanthropic and public initiatives across technology, blockchain, artificial intelligence, scientific research, investment, art and space exploration. Sun is the Ambassador and former Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization and the founder of TRON, which the announcement says has processed over $13 trillion in volume since its inception.
