Justin Sun has announced a new prize focused on mathematical breakthroughs and machine-verifiable proofs, offering awards of up to $1 million for individual achievements. The Justin Sun Prize is designed to support research conducted by both humans and artificial intelligence without requiring traditional nominations or institutional credentials.
The initiative’s first awards recognize solutions and formalized proofs covering 66 mathematical problems. The top award, worth $1 million, was given to an OpenAI research team for work addressing the existence and smoothness of the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations.
OpenAI team receives top award
The Navier–Stokes problem concerns equations used to describe fluid motion. Developed in the 19th century through the work of Claude-Louis Navier, George Gabriel Stokes and others, it was named by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000 as one of its seven Millennium Prize Problems, each carrying a $1 million reward.
According to information published by OpenAI, the relevant proof was produced by an internal model, while GPT-6 Astra completed the formalization and verification in Lean. The Justin Sun Prize announcement did not provide additional details about the proof beyond those claims.
Open, machine-verifiable model
Rather than operating on a fixed cycle, the prize links awards directly to specific mathematical challenges and formally verified results. Anyone can qualify by being the first to complete a recognized challenge under the stated requirements. The public problem list may be expanded but, once a problem is added, it cannot be removed. Awards already distributed are not subject to repayment, according to the initiative.
The current list also includes formal verification of the Poincaré Conjecture, the Riemann Hypothesis, Goldbach’s Conjecture and problems associated with the late mathematician and Wolf Prize laureate Paul Erdős.
The project says its principles are openness, public benefit and open source. Problem statements, verification requirements, proofs and related code are to be published through GitHub, while prize-payment records will be recorded on-chain. Winners will receive a certificate and medal bearing the Latin inscription “Quod probatur, solvitur,” translated as “Proved, then paid.”
Prize payments will be available in either USDT on TRON through the TRC-20 standard or USDC on Ethereum through ERC-20, based on the recipient’s preference.
Sun said the prize reflects his view that his wealth originated in mathematics and should ultimately support mathematics. The announcement also stated that he has donated more than $45 million to technology, environmental protection, disaster relief and other causes. The initiative is intended to become a long-term part of his philanthropic work in scientific research and AI-assisted discovery.
