LVGA, the MyLugano app and the merchant network

A municipal loyalty token

The least spectacular element of Plan ₿ is probably the one that reaches the largest number of residents. The MyLugano app, developed by the city before 2022, combines information on municipal services with a loyalty circuit for local shops. Its currency is LVGA, which the city describes as the "City of Lugano payment token". Customers who buy from a participating merchant receive a cashback of up to 10 per cent of the purchase price, credited in LVGA, which they can spend at other participating businesses. The system runs on 3Achain, which the city calls its own blockchain available to partners and businesses.¹ The economic logic is that of a local currency or a municipal voucher scheme: the reward stays in the local economy because it can only be spent there.

The name LVGA renders "Luga" in the style of a Latin inscription, with V for U. In the first reports on Plan ₿ the token appeared as "LUGA" and was described as a reward points token to be launched with the programme.² Later descriptions use the name LVGA Points or simply LVGA. Some financial media have called it a stablecoin developed with Tether, a description that does not match the city's own account of the token.³ On the city's own description it is a loyalty and payment token whose value is tied to purchases in the circuit and whose use is confined to participating merchants.

In November 2023 the city announced a renewal of the app. A new section called "Assets" made it possible to manage a self-custodial wallet for several blockchains, while the app was connected to the Polygon network, whose token could now be used alongside bitcoin and LVGA.⁴ At that time the city stated that more than 30,000 users accessed the loyalty circuit, which a financial news service related to the city's population as "nearly half".⁵ The same announcement launched a collection of nonfungible tokens linked to a street-art installation by the Swiss artist Yuri Catania on a wall of more than 40 metres in length and 8 metres in height at the Palazzo dei Congressi, which hundreds of participants had helped to create.⁶

Merchants that accept bitcoin and USDT

Alongside the loyalty token, Plan ₿ promoted the acceptance of bitcoin and USDT by shops, restaurants and service providers. The figures reported by the city have grown over time. The MyLugano website speaks of about 300 businesses that accept LVGA.⁷ In March 2026, at the signing of the memorandum for Phase II, the city and Tether stated that more than 400 commercial establishments had been enabled to accept payments in LVGA, bitcoin and USDT.⁸ For a city that reports about 68,600 inhabitants of 141 nationalities, this is a visible network, although it covers only part of local commerce.⁹

The number of merchants that are technically able to accept a payment says little about the number of payments actually made. Neither the city nor Tether has published aggregate figures on the volume of payments in bitcoin and USDT at Lugano merchants or on the volume of municipal invoices paid in Kryptowerte und Digital Assets, at least in the sources consulted for this chapter. Reports from the early phase noted that bitcoin cash machines in the city were seldom used.¹⁰ The experience of Chiasso, where a single private taxpayer used the bitcoin option over several years, and of Zug, where tax payments in Kryptowerte und Digital Assets reached about CHF 2 million in 2022, suggests that the real volume is small compared with the city's total revenue and with local retail turnover.¹¹ The absence of published figures is itself a point that a critical assessment must note.

In practice a merchant who accepts bitcoin in Lugano need not keep it. The payment terminals and point-of-sale applications offered by specialized providers can convert the incoming bitcoin or USDT into Swiss francs at the moment of payment and credit the merchant in francs, minus a fee. A merchant who uses this option bears neither exchange-rate risk nor the burden of holding Kryptowerte und Digital Assets on the balance sheet. The customer, on the other hand, realizes any gain or loss on the coins spent. The structure mirrors the city's own arrangement with Bitcoin Suisse. Its effect is that bitcoin functions in Lugano as a means of payment at the point of sale and is immediately exchanged for the legal tender.

Notes

1. City of Lugano, MyLugano, "How does it work?", https://my.lugano.ch/en/how-does-it-work/. ↩
2. Allen, "Death, taxes and crypto" (above). ↩
3. "Lugano progredisce con i pagamenti in criptovaluta", finews.ch, 25 November 2023, https://www.finews.ch/ticino/60317-lugano-plan-b-polygon-mylugano-nft (describing LVGA as Lugano's stablecoin "originally developed with Tether"). ↩
4. laRegione, "L'app Mylugano si rinnova" (above); finews.ch, "Lugano progredisce" (above). ↩
5. laRegione, "L'app Mylugano si rinnova" (above) (more than 30,000 users); finews.ch, "Lugano progredisce" (above) ("nearly half" of the population). ↩
6. finews.ch, "Lugano progredisce" (above). ↩
7. City of Lugano, MyLugano, "How does it work?" (above). ↩
8. laRegione, "Lugano, il Plan ₿ entra nella seconda fase" (above); "Lugano's Plan ₿ ", sponsored content, Tio.ch, 6 March 2026, https://www.tio.ch/newsblog/lugano-s-plan-/1909393/plan-citta-lugano-tether-anni-fase-dati-tecnologie-infrastrutture-progetto. ↩
9. City of Lugano, "Dati e statistiche", https://www.lugano.ch/la-mia-citta/la-citta-si-racconta/dati-statistiche.html ("A Lugano vivono 68'633 abitanti di 141 nazionalità differenti"; no reference date stated). ↩
10. RSI, "A Lugano si paga tutto in Bitcoin e Tether" (above), referring to an earlier report on little-used bitcoin cash machines. ↩
11. On Chiasso see Fortune Italia and Illaretti (both above); on Zug, "Zuger zahlen ihre Steuern öfters mit Kryptogeld", zentralplus, 26 August 2023, https://www.zentralplus.ch/wirtschaft/zuger-zahlen-ihre-steuern-oefters-mit-kryptogeld-2573892/. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.