Lugano Plan ₿ celebrates three years of achievements

Today, Lugano celebrates a journey that has marked a turning point in the City’s efforts to promote technological innovation. Since March 2022, with the Lugano Plan ₿ project – an initiative launched in collaboration with Tether – the city is increasingly establishing itself on the international stage as a center of excellence for Bitcoin, blockchain, and digital technologies.

The PoW.space, a modern co‐working space housed in a historic building formerly occupied by the Banca Intermobiliare, represents one of the most significant milestones promoted by Plan ₿. In just a few months, this space has already welcomed numerous companies and professionals, including startups supported by the Plan ₿ Fund and a branch of Sygnum Bank, joining the other companies operating in the Bitcoin and blockchain sector – about a hundred – that have settled in the city since the launch of the Plan ₿ initiative. Today, to celebrate the third anniversary of Lugano Plan ₿, PoW.space is hosting an event dedicated to the results achieved and to reviewing new perspectives, also offering the public the opportunity to use its desks free of charge and to participate in some training sessions.

The successes of the Plan ₿ in 2024

In addition to the launch of PoW.space, located in a historic building completely modernized thanks to private investments, 2024 saw, among the new milestones achieved by Plan ₿, the consolidation of its training offer in the sector, with 140 students coming to Lugano from all over the world for the third edition of the “Summer School” and many others who, thanks to additional Network courses, have deepened topics related to Bitcoin and blockchain and found employment in the sector.

The impact of these and other initiatives – such as the involvement of universities in the B4B advanced course for local professionals, the issuance of a third digital bond with SIX Digital Exchange, and the growing support for FC Lugano – is reflected in the attention the city attracted over the past year, even beyond its borders, thanks to the Plan ₿ project.

In particular, the Plan ₿ Forum 2024, held last October, brought over 2,900 participants to Lugano, who carried out 8,000 digital currency transactions at local businesses in one week. The event represented the moment of greatest attention toward Lugano, also online. Approximately 13,000 searches referring to the city and its activities originated during the event period, well above a current weekly average of 4,000. In total, more than 9,000 online information requests related to the Plan ₿ project were recorded last year, with social media engagement characterized by around 253,000 interactions. The attention related to it comes predominantly from abroad, with 44.9% of online activities carried out by users in the USA, compared to 15.9% coming from the rest of the Confederation. Moreover, the overall online sentiment is extremely positive, with a net sentiment of 90.4%: specifically, 52.7% of the communication is positive, 44.6% neutral, and only 2.7% negative. Among the terms most positively associated with Lugano and Plan ₿ are “blockchain technology”, “Satoshi Nakamoto” – linked to the exhibition of the creator of Bitcoin’s statue – and “Plan ₿ Forum”. Also noteworthy is the growth of the positive net sentiment linked to online conversations in Switzerland over the past year, which reached a remarkable 93.7% – a figure even higher than the overall average, confirming the growing interest, curiosity, and appreciation for the project and its impact on Lugano.