Stablecoin Summit in Lugano: One Morning on Digital Dollars and Bitcoin
On Sunday, October 25, 2026, RGB Protocol Association hosts the Stablecoin Summit in Lugano: four hours on how digital dollars get issued, lent, and delivered to the people who use them, and on why Bitcoin keeps coming up as the place where they settle.
The Summit starts the morning after Plan ₿ Forum ends.
In Brief
- Sunday, October 25, 2026, 10:00-14:00, doors at 09:30, at LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, during Plan ₿ Week.
- Four themes on the table: Bitcoin and stablecoins, demand from high-inflation economies, credit and collateral, and the infrastructure that carries digital dollars.
- For issuers, lenders, exchanges, builders, and regulators, plus anyone else working on where digital dollars go next.
- Small room, seats on request: every application on Luma is reviewed before approval.
Why Stablecoins, and Why Now?
Stablecoins have moved well beyond trading. In countries with high inflation, people use them to keep their savings, get paid, and pay suppliers, and a growing share of international trade settles in digital dollars. The debate has shifted from “whether” to “where”: which networks carry them, who issues them, and under which rules.
For RGB Protocol on Bitcoin, the question is quite concrete. In fact, Tether announced in August 2025 that USDT is coming to RGB, and CEO Paolo Ardoino has explained why: digital dollars can live on Bitcoin and move over Lightning, with client-side validation keeping transfer data between the parties involved instead of on a public ledger.
The conversation is also moving beyond the Bitcoin world. On September 24, 2026, Viktor Ihnatiuk, co-founder and CEO of Utexo, shared that he had spent an evening in Washington with Morgan Stanley, discussing Utexo’s work with the bank on USDT adoption on Bitcoin, in Europe and globally.
The event is coming in the right moment, as the interest on the deployment is growing stronger everyday. A morning dedicated to how digital dollars reach real users is the right place to ask your questions.
What Will Be Discussed?
The program follows four threads:
- Bitcoin and stablecoins, side by side. Bitcoin as the settlement asset, digital dollars as the currency people use everyday, and why the two strengthen each other instead of competing.
- Where the demand comes from. Brazil, Turkey, Argentina, and Nigeria, where holding digital dollars is a way to protect what you earn, and what that demand means for issuance, distribution, and compliance.
- Credit and collateral. Lending in digital dollars: who lends, against which collateral, on what terms, and how a credit market grows on top of a payment network.
- Distribution and infrastructure. How digital dollars are available to users: issuance layers, interoperability, custody, and the trade-offs between the chains competing to carry them. For anyone following RGB, this thread is the one closest to home.
Speakers and the detailed program will be announced in the coming weeks. We’ll share them on this blog as soon as they’re public.
Who Should Come?
The Summit is built for the people who shape how digital dollars work in practice: stablecoin issuers, banks and payment institutions, lenders and treasury desks, exchanges and market makers, wallet and custody teams, infrastructure builders, regulators and legal advisors, operators in emerging markets, and investors with digital-asset exposure.
If you build wallets or infrastructure that could carry digital dollars on Bitcoin, it’s a rare chance to hear directly from the issuers and lenders who will decide which rails to use.
Practical Details
- Date: Sunday, October 25, 2026
- Schedule: doors open at 09:30, program from 10:00 to 14:00, lunch afterwards
- Venue: LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, Sala 1, top floor (elevator or stairs), Piazza Bernardino Luini 6, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
- How to join: request a seat on Luma with your full name and job title; capacity is limited, so each request is approved individually
One tip for Forum-goers: summer time ends in Switzerland on the night between Saturday and Sunday, and clocks go back one hour. Worth a second look at your alarm after the last evening of Plan ₿ Forum.
Further Reading
- RGB Protocol Association Announces Stablecoin Summit in Lugano
- Stablecoin Summit on Plan ₿ Week
- Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino on Bitcoin’s Future: Why USDt Could Move to RGB Protocol on Bitcoin
- The Business Case for USDT on Bitcoin: Utexo’s Bet on RGB and Lightning
- Stablecoins by the Numbers: Volume, Liquidity, and the Case for RGB Protocol on Bitcoin
- Pragmatic Maximalism: RGB at Bitcoin Asia Stablecoin Panel
- RGB & Lightning Network
