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Lugano announced on March 3, 2026, that it is committing $6.4 million through 2030 to deepen its integration of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency into municipal services and local commerce.
The investment, made jointly with Tether, shifts the Swiss city’s crypto strategy from a three-year pilot phase to a permanent infrastructure program, signaling a bet that blockchain-based payments and identity systems can become durable components of civic life.
The new four-year roadmap builds on the success of an earlier pilot that embedded bitcoin (BTC), Tether’s USDT stablecoin, and the city’s own LVGA token into everyday commerce and select public services. Now, Plan ₿ Phase II shifts from experimentation to long-term structural development.
The initial rollout of the Plan ₿ initiative began four years ago with a bold goal: integrate digital assets into real economic activity rather than treat them as speculative instruments.
That vision materialized quickly. Today, more than 400 local merchants in Lugano accept BTC, USDT, and LVGA for everyday transactions. Residents can use digital assets to pay for goods and services across retail shops, restaurants, and select municipal obligations.
With Plan ₿ Phase II, the focus moves beyond payments and into durable infrastructure.
“Phase II focuses on infrastructure, resilience, and local capacity building,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, during the launch announcement. “We are not just enabling transactions; we are investing in systems that make Lugano a global benchmark for decentralized innovation.”
Ardoino emphasized that Plan ₿ Phase II is designed to reinforce Lugano’s position as a long-term digital asset hub rather than a short-lived crypto showcase.
Under Plan ₿ Phase II, Tether and the city have pledged up to CHF 5 million ($6.4 million) through 2030. The funding will be directed toward three core pillars:
Infrastructure expansion
Applied blockchain research
Specialized technical training programs
This financial commitment ensures that Plan ₿ Phase II extends beyond branding into tangible ecosystem growth.
Municipal leaders framed the initiative as an economic diversification strategy. By anchoring blockchain innovation locally, Lugano aims to attract startups, talent, and capital while reinforcing Switzerland’s reputation for financial and technological stability.
A central component of Plan ₿ Phase II is the advancement of sovereign digital identity systems. These systems aim to give individuals greater control over their digital credentials while improving efficiency in administrative processes.
In practical terms, Plan ₿ Phase II envisions infrastructure that supports secure identity verification, compliant digital payments, and scalable blockchain applications across both public and private sectors.
Such initiatives align with broader European discussions around digital identity frameworks, but Lugano’s approach is distinctive in its integration with live crypto payment rails.
Another cornerstone of Plan ₿ Phase II is the expansion of PoW.space, the physical innovation hub established during the program’s initial phase.
PoW.space has already attracted more than 100 fintech and blockchain companies to Lugano’s jurisdiction. The facility functions as a collaborative environment for peer-to-peer technology development, blockchain research, and entrepreneurial incubation.
With Plan ₿ Phase II, PoW.space will scale its operations, deepen research partnerships, and broaden its educational outreach.
The goal is clear: create a self-sustaining innovation cluster where developers, startups, and institutional players coexist within a supportive regulatory and commercial framework.
Although infrastructure is now the headline, payments remain integral to Plan ₿ Phase II.
Lugano’s municipal ecosystem continues to support transactions in bitcoin, USDT, and LVGA. The integration of these digital assets into retail and certain public-facing services demonstrates real-world functionality rather than theoretical adoption.
More than 400 merchants currently participate, a figure that city officials expect to grow as Plan ₿ Phase II matures.
By embedding crypto into daily economic activity, Lugano has attempted to normalize digital asset usage. The second phase aims to ensure that this normalization is supported by robust backend systems and educational pipelines.
A significant portion of the funding allocated under Plan ₿ Phase II will support specialized training programs. These initiatives are designed to cultivate local expertise in blockchain engineering, cybersecurity, and decentralized systems architecture.
Rather than relying solely on imported talent, Plan ₿ Phase II seeks to build a domestic knowledge base capable of sustaining long-term innovation.
This approach reflects a strategic shift from adoption metrics to ecosystem durability.
The launch of Plan ₿ Phase II comes at a time when governments worldwide are evaluating how digital assets fit into public infrastructure. While some jurisdictions have taken restrictive approaches, Lugano is positioning itself as a testbed for structured integration.
By committing capital, expanding physical innovation space, and reinforcing digital identity initiatives, Plan ₿ Phase II sends a signal that crypto experimentation can evolve into institutional strategy.
For Tether, the initiative reinforces its ambition to move beyond stablecoin issuance and into broader infrastructure development. For Lugano, Plan ₿ Phase II represents a calculated bet that blockchain-native systems can drive economic growth.
The next four years will determine whether that bet pays off.
What is clear, however, is that Plan ₿ Phase II is no longer a pilot. It is a structured, funded roadmap aimed at embedding decentralized technologies into the civic and commercial fabric of a European city.
If successful, Plan ₿ Phase II could become a blueprint for municipalities seeking to merge public administration with blockchain infrastructure—turning policy experiments into lasting economic engines.
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