Lugano Launches Phase II of Plan ₿
The City of Lugano and Tether launched Plan ₿ Phase II for 2026-2030, extending a four-year Bitcoin and digital-asset initiative into a broader infrastructure program. The new phase built on a local payment network in which more than 400 merchants were already accepting BTC, USD₮ and LVGA.
On March 3, 2026, Tether and the City of Lugano announced Phase II of Plan ₿, extending the Swiss city's Bitcoin and digital-asset initiative through 2030. The partners described the next phase as a shift from an urban experiment toward a broader program focused on digital infrastructure, resilience and technological autonomy.
Plan ₿ had begun in 2022 with an effort to integrate Bitcoin and other digital assets into everyday city commerce and public life. By the Phase II announcement, more than 400 local merchants accepted BTC, USD₮ and Lugano's LVGA token, giving the program a tangible local-payment footprint rather than leaving it at the level of policy declarations.
The second phase mattered to Bitcoin history because Lugano remained one of the clearest municipal experiments in sustained Bitcoin acceptance in Europe. The event documented a city choosing to continue and institutionalize that experiment after several years of real-world use.