Lugano, the city in southern Switzerland, took the first step in becoming Europe’s crypto capital by adopting Bitcoin, Tether, and the city’s own LVGA token as legal tender. The Swiss municipality encourages the growth of cryptocurrency and embraces the benefits that blockchain technology can offer.
Over 63,000 local inhabitants and city visitors can use the three cryptocurrencies to pay for services in Lugano. Within the next few months, people will be able to pay in cryptocurrency for:
- Personal and corporate municipal taxes
- Dog ownership tax
- Public services
- Parking tickets
- Sewage fees
- City market site fees
- ID and passport issuance fees
- Naturalization
- Construction permit fees
- Boat docking fees
- Tuition
- Garbage tax
- Signature authorization fees
- Access to public infrastructure and public events
- Excerpts from official registers
- Rental spaces for events
- Cemetery taxes
The mayor of Lugano, Michele Foletti, said that the city embraces technological innovation and freedom. He wants to make cryptocurrency accessible to everyone and believes that legalizing Bitcoin, Tether, and LVGA will benefit the city’s citizens.
In an interview, the CTO of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, talked about the partnership between Lugano and Tether:
“Tether contributes significantly to a more connected ecosystem by combining the advantages of digital assets, such as instant global transactions, with those of traditional assets, such as a much more stable price. As such, Tether's partnership with Lugano pursues its mission of providing the safest, fastest, and cheapest way to transact money.” He added that Tether is eager to collaborate with all municipalities and countries in Europe.
Below is the video where Michele Foletti, Paolo Ardoino, Jan Ludovicus van der Velde (CEO of Tether), and Pietro Poretti (Lugano’s economic development division) introduced the news.
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