TL;DR:
- YZi Labs opened the call for Season 4 of its EASY Residency incubator, setting the deadline for applications on June 21, 2026.
- RedotPay and BTSE Bhutan confirmed operational progress and regulatory approvals within Bhutan’s new Special Administrative Region in May 2026.
- The incubation program offers up to $500,000 in funding for projects focused on the Web3, Artificial Intelligence, and Biotechnology sectors.
The venture capital firm YZi Labs opened the application process for the new edition of its EASY Residency cohort, with the enrollment deadline for founders remaining active until next June 21, 2026. This fourth season will mark a geopolitical milestone by physically relocating the selected teams to Gelephu Mindfulness City, the new sovereign tech city being developed by the Kingdom of Bhutan within its territory.
Applications for @EASYResidency Season 4 are now open.
🇧🇹 The first global incubator to bring a founder cohort inside @gmcbhutan, Bhutan’s new sovereign tech city.
→ 5 weeks online · 5 weeks in person
→ Up to $500K funding + housing, meals, and workspace covered
→ For… https://t.co/7GuGfl3kDx— YZi Labs (@yzilabs) May 22, 2026
The program will last ten weeks, distributed equally into five weeks of virtual mentoring and five weeks of in-person residency. According to the official program guidelines, accepted founders will have access to funding of up to $500,000 for the development of their platforms, in addition to receiving full coverage for housing, meals, and workspaces during their stay in the Asian country.
Strategic alliances and attraction of Web3 infrastructure
The development of this initiative coincides with an accelerated maturation in the region’s regulatory environment. According to reports from local authorities, on May 12, 2026, the Royal Government of Bhutan and the Republic of Singapore signed a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement. This treaty seeks to prevent duplicated tax burdens on the returns of international investors, establishing itself as the third bilateral tax agreement managed by the country, with direct participation from the economic zone’s administrators.
Data from the Gelephu Mindfulness City report indicates that this city operates under the status of a Special Administrative Region (SAR), which allows it to structure a legal framework independent of the national system. The central purpose of this regulatory autonomy is to attract family offices, traditional financial institutions, and global firms specialized in decentralized digital infrastructure.
The arrival of new players from the crypto ecosystem to the region progressively materialized throughout the month of May. On May 21, 2026, the stablecoin payments platform RedotPay announced the establishment of a local legal entity in the city to integrate its payment gateways with local regulatory standards. Likewise, reports published on May 14 confirmed that the digital asset exchange BTSE Bhutan received an In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the Gelephu Financial Services Office to obtain its respective Financial Services License.
Competition in the venture capital incubator sector
The relocation of YZi Labs‘ cohort to Bhutan responds to a competitive reconfiguration within the Web3 accelerator and Artificial Intelligence infrastructure sector. The firm’s corporate proposal, active under this format since mid-2025, seeks to differentiate itself through physical immersion in jurisdictions with startup-friendly legal frameworks.
According to industry commercial estimates, native programs in the digital asset ecosystem are currently competing with traditional venture capital funds, which have directed their resources toward early-stage development in decentralized protocols. The in-person phase in the Bhutanese city is presented as an alternative to centralize technical talent within a regulated testing environment.
The culmination of the application intake process on June 21 will give way to the selection of the startups. The organizers reported that admitted proposals must focus as a priority on global payment solutions, automated agent economies, next-generation decentralized finance, and robotics applied to biotechnology.
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