Cypher Tank is returning to Lugano, with applications now open for the 2026 edition of the Bitcoin-focused pitch competition following last year's event, which drew over 4,000 participants from 64 countries.

As in 2025, the format — promoted and funded by the Plan ₿ VC Fund and the Plan ₿ Foundation — pairs a "Shark Tank"-style negotiation stage with documentary-style production, filming real pitches, deals, and judge deliberations for release as an online series. The Plan ₿ name comes from the Bitcoin adoption initiative that Tether and the City of Lugano launched in 2022 with the stated aim of making Bitcoin and stablecoins usable for taxes, municipal services, and everyday purchases — an effort that has made the Swiss city a focal point for Bitcoin adoption in Europe.

The 2026 edition expands the finalist field to 12 projects — eight for-profit and four nonprofit — up from eleven last year. Founders will compete to negotiate direct investment from a panel of judges known as the "honey badgers" and to win one of three $100,000 prizes in incubation, acceleration, or relocation services.

A committee selects finalists against three criteria: alignment with the values of individual freedom, privacy, decentralization, and resilience; execution ability, sustainability, and market feasibility; and integration within the broader Plan ₿ ecosystem.

The competition unfolds in four phases. Applications opened August 13 and close September 25, after which finalists will be notified starting September 30. The finals run October 25–27 at PoW Space Lugano, immediately following the Plan ₿ Forum. The program begins with a coaching day on which finalists rehearse their pitches with communication experts, followed by two days of live pitching and negotiation split into batches on October 26 and 27. Winners are selected at the close of the second day.

Recorded episodes then go into post-production through the end of the year, airing online in January 2027. The winners' incubation and acceleration support begins at the end of February, once their NDAs lapse.

The show's first season launched in 2025 with similarly high stakes — more than $850,000 in total prizes — and a judging panel that included Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, head of the issuer of USDT, the largest stablecoin by market capitalization; Blockstream's Adam Back, the cryptographer whose Hashcash proof-of-work design is cited in the Bitcoin whitepaper; Ten31's Matt Odell, Lightning Ventures' Mike Jarmuz, and Ego Death's Preston Pysh. Season one rode the momentum of a record-breaking Plan ₿ Forum, which drew more than 4,000 attendees from 64 countries and upward of 800,000 livestream viewers. Its episodes premiered at Plan ₿ Forum El Salvador in January 2026, and the winners were formally honored in Lugano that March.

With season two now underway, Cypher Tank is betting that a bigger finalist pool and a tighter four-phase structure can build on that first-season visibility, continuing its push to position Lugano as a global hub for Bitcoin and freedom-tech innovation. The season's checkpoints are fixed on the calendar — applications close September 25, the finals follow the Plan ₿ Forum in late October, and the episodes premiere online in January 2027 — giving Bitcoin founders a defined runway from application to aired pitch.

For more information and applications, founders can visit the application portal.

This article is based on a report by Mathew Di Salvo, originally published by Bitcoin Magazine.