Phase II: the memorandum of 3 March 2026

From payments to digital infrastructure

On 3 March 2026, four years to the day after the launch, Foletti and Ardoino signed a second memorandum in the council chamber of the Palazzo Civico. The city was represented by the mayor and by the municipal secretary, Robert Bregy, in accordance with the rule of the Ticino law on municipalities under which the mayor signs the acts of the municipality jointly with the municipal secretary.¹ Ardoino recalled on that occasion that the ambitions of 2022 had been criticized heavily.² The new document is more cautious in tone and more detailed in structure than anything published about the first agreement. It describes the original experiment with payments in bitcoin as the starting point of a cooperation that now extends to "digital infrastructures, technological resilience and digital sovereignty" and that aims to make Lugano "an international model of digital innovation, resilience and technological sovereignty" for the period 2026 to 2030.³

The memorandum organizes the cooperation in five pillars.⁴ The first concerns institutional infrastructure: an existing ledger called SwissLedger is to be developed into an institutional blockchain for tokenization and programmable settlement, together with education on the Bitcoin protocols. The second aims to establish Lugano as a hub for tokenized trade and commodities, with instant settlement through stablecoins. The third provides for a decentralized, voluntary and privacy-preserving digital identity ecosystem based on zero-knowledge proofs and civic wallets. The fourth envisages a decentralized and "sovereign" ecosystem of artificial intelligence with autonomous agents for public and financial services. The fifth concerns distributed networks and peer-to-peer infrastructure for critical services, including decentralized data storage.

Tether's contribution and the governance of Phase II

Tether undertakes to contribute CHF 5,000,000 over the four years of the memorandum, with an average of CHF 1,000,000 per pillar that may be reallocated according to the priorities and maturity of the projects.⁵ The memorandum states expressly that the contribution is primarily intended as support in kind, consisting of resources, expertise and initiatives, and that direct financial funding is the exception. The forms of support listed include the deployment of qualified personnel, the transfer of know-how, training, applied research and prototypes, access to infrastructure, technical support, the funding or co-funding of academic initiatives and support for initiatives on digital literacy and security. A sponsored report published by the city and Tether on the same occasion speaks of a contribution of "up to" CHF 5 million.⁶

Governance is entrusted to a Joint Implementation Committee, which defines operational priorities and key performance indicators, oversees implementation, risk management, security, compliance and data protection, and decides whether separate implementing agreements are needed. It adopts annual work plans and updated roadmaps with responsibilities, timelines and measurement criteria.⁷ The parties commit to a set of principles: compliance with the applicable law and consultation of the competent authorities, an incremental approach through pilot projects and proofs of concept, interoperability and technological neutrality, cybersecurity and data protection by design, transparency and the measurement of public benefit, and respect for academic autonomy.⁸ The city commits, within its competences and resources, to serve as a "Living Lab", to integrate digital solutions into public services subject to the necessary approvals, and to promote administrative simplification and digital awareness.

The final provisions define the legal character of the document. The memorandum "establishes a framework of cooperation and intent". Except for the provisions on confidentiality and intellectual property it is non-binding and creates no financial obligations for the city in the absence of separate implementing agreements. Specific projects may be governed by such agreements, pre-existing intellectual property remains with each party, joint intellectual property is to be regulated in the implementing agreements, no exclusivity is implied, public announcements are to be coordinated, and confidentiality applies only within the limits of the law, "including public transparency obligations".⁹ The document contains no clause on governing law, jurisdiction or dispute resolution and no termination clause beyond the four-year term.

Notes

1. Memorandum of Understanding … Phase II (above), signature block; laRegione, "Lugano, il Plan ₿ entra nella seconda fase" (above) (signing in the council chamber of the Palazzo Civico). On the joint signature see Legge organica comunale, RL 181.100, Art. 118 para. 1 (the mayor represents the municipality), Art. 119 lit. d (the mayor signs the acts of the municipality together with the municipal secretary) and Art. 138 lit. a (the secretary signs the acts of the municipality with the mayor), https://m3.ti.ch/CAN/RLeggi/public/index.php/raccolta-leggi/legge/num/65. ↩
2. laRegione, "Lugano, il Plan ₿ entra nella seconda fase" (above) ("Quattro anni fa i propositi erano ambiziosi e sono stati criticati parecchio"). ↩
3. Memorandum of Understanding … Phase II (above), recitals and objectives. ↩
4. Ibid., pillars I–V. ↩
5. Ibid., section on Tether's contributions. ↩
6. "Lugano's Plan ₿ ", sponsored content, Tio.ch, 6 March 2026 (above). ↩
7. Memorandum of Understanding … Phase II (above), governance and duration. ↩
8. Ibid., implementation principles and safeguards. ↩
9. Ibid., final provisions. ↩

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.