{"id":217918,"date":"2026-08-25T02:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=217918"},"modified":"2026-08-25T02:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:00:32","slug":"cypher-tank-returns-to-lugano-expanding-its-bet-on-bitcoin-founders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=217918","title":{"rendered":"Cypher Tank Returns to Lugano, Expanding Its Bet on Bitcoin Founders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Cypher Tank Returns to Lugano, Expanding Its Bet on Bitcoin Founders<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Cypher Tank is back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Applications for 2026\u2019s Bitcoin-focused pitch competition are now open after last year\u2019s event drew over 4,000 participants from 64 countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like 2025\u2019s event, the format, promoted and funded by the Plan \u20bf VC Fund<\/a> and the Plan \u20bf Foundation, pairs a \u201cShark Tank\u201d-style negotiation format with a documentary-style production, filming real pitches, deals and judge deliberations for release as an online series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s edition expands the finalist field to 12 projects \u2014 eight for-profit and four nonprofit \u2014 up from last year\u2019s eleven, with founders competing to negotiate direct investment from a panel of judges known as the \u201choney badgers\u201d and to win one of three $100,000 prizes in incubation, acceleration, or relocation services.<\/p>\n

Finalists are chosen by committee 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 \u20bf ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The competition unfolds in four phases. Applications opened August 13 and close September 25, after which finalists are notified starting September 30. The finals themselves run October 25\u201327 at PoW Space Lugano, immediately following the Plan \u20bf Forum \u2014 beginning with a coaching day where finalists rehearse pitches with communication experts, followed by two days of live pitching and negotiation split into batches on October 26 and 27.<\/p>\n

Winners are selected at the close of the second day. The recorded episodes then go into post-production through the end of the year, airing online in January 2027, with the winners\u2019 incubation and acceleration support kicking off at the end of February once their NDAs lapse.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s first season launched in 2025 with similarly high stakes \u2014 over $850,000 in total prizes and a judging panel that included Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Blockstream\u2019s Adam Back, Ten31\u2019s Matt Odell, Lightning Ventures\u2019 Mike Jarmuz, and Ego Death\u2019s Preston Pysh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It rode the momentum of a record-breaking Plan \u20bf Forum, which drew more than 4,000 attendees from 64 countries and upward of 800,000 livestream viewers, before its episodes premiered at Plan \u20bf Forum El Salvador in January 2026 and winners were formally honored in Lugano that March.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 continuing its push to position Lugano as a global hub for Bitcoin and freedom-tech innovation.<\/p>\n

For more information and applications, founders can visit the application portal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This post Cypher Tank Returns to Lugano, Expanding Its Bet on Bitcoin Founders<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Mathew Di Salvo<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine Cypher Tank Returns to Lugano, Expanding Its Bet on Bitcoin Founders Cypher Tank is back.\u00a0 Applications for 2026\u2019s Bitcoin-focused pitch competition are now open after last year\u2019s event drew over 4,000 participants from 64 countries.\u00a0 Like 2025\u2019s event, the format, promoted and funded by the Plan \u20bf VC Fund and the Plan \u20bf […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":217919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=217918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/217919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=217918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=217918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=217918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}