The Swiss city now accepts payments in Bitcoin and USDT for local administrative procedures. A step forward towards the adoption of cryptos pushed by Tether and the entire “Crypto Valley”.
Lugano accepts Bitcoin and Tether
From now on, residents of Lugano will be able to pay their fines, settle their bills and municipal taxes in crypto using their smartphone and with a simple QR code. In a press release, the municipality announced that it was now ready to accommodate payments in Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoin USDT. To do this, she uses the services of Bitcoin Switzerlanda company that provides crypto services.
“Bitcoin Suisse supports Lugano in its Plan B by managing the technical part of the integrated payment solution, providing a convenient option to accept payments in Bitcoin and Tether for the collection of taxes and other municipal service bills.”
For Armin Schmid, CPO of Bitcoin Suisse, “It is great to see that more and more Swiss municipalities are offering cryptocurrency payments as an available option for both citizens and businesses”, in addition to traditional payment methods such as post office counters and online banking platforms.
Initiatives favorable to cryptos in Switzerland
Lugano is in fact not the only Swiss community to offer its citizens to pay in cryptos. The city of Zug and the canton of the same name have already preceded it in 2021. More recently, the municipality of Lugano made Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) legal tender, as did LVGA, the city’s digital franc. The city of Zermatt, in the canton of Valais, also opened crypto payments in 2020.
Before taking the reins of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, then CTO of the largest stablecoin in the world (90 billion dollars in capitalization) had indicated that he wanted to make the small town in the south of Switzerland a “European capital of Bitcoin”, and announced the creation of a support fund for startups and businesses of 100 million Swiss francs. Lugano also hosts an important conference, Plan Bevery year in October around Bitcoin.
“Crypto Valley” at the cutting edge
Switzerland is known for having created a favorable environment for cryptos, with regulations in 2018 that made it internationally renowned (DLT Act). The “Crypto Valley” initially restricted to the canton of Zug, cradle of numerous blockchain foundations (Ethreum, Near, Solana, etc.) represents a breeding ground for 1185 companies, the top 15 of which represent a total valuation of 185 billion dollars, and today covers a good part of Switzerland, and even Liechtenstein.
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