The New York Stock Exchange has become the sixth venue to host Valentina Picozzi’s “disappearing” Satoshi Nakamoto statue — a notable shift for an institution where crypto was once considered taboo.
Long viewed as a stronghold of traditional finance, the NYSE described the installation as “shared ground between emerging systems and established institutions” in an X post on Wednesday.
The statue was installed by Bitcoin firm Twenty One Capital, which began trading this week. The piece itself was created by Picozzi, who wrote on X via her Satoshigallery account that seeing her work showcased in such a prominent setting was “mind-blowing.”
“This is such an achievement — even in our wildest dreams we never imagined placing a Satoshi Nakamoto statue here. The 6th of 21 Satoshi statues has found its home at the NYSE,” Picozzi wrote.
The installation also lands on a meaningful date: the anniversary of the Bitcoin mailing list, launched by Nakamoto on Dec. 10, 2008.
Bitcoin’s path from idea to mainstream asset
Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block on Jan. 3, 2009, creating the first 50 Bitcoin and laying the foundation for today’s crypto industry.
More than a year later, on May 22, 2010, developer Laszlo Hanyecz made the first known purchase using Bitcoin, spending 10,000 BTC on two Papa John’s pizzas.
Since then, Bitcoin and the broader crypto sector have weathered years of skepticism, institutional resistance, and alleged government pressure, including efforts like Operation Chokepoint 2.0. But sentiment has shifted: critics such as BlackRock CEO Larry Fink have reversed their positions, and institutions across Wall Street are now racing to gain exposure through ETFs or by holding Bitcoin in their treasuries.
Today, public companies, private firms, countries, and ETFs collectively hold more than 3.7 million BTC—worth over $336 billion—according to Bitbo.
More Satoshi statues to come
Picozzi currently has five other Nakamoto statues placed around the world, in Switzerland, El Salvador, Japan, Vietnam, and Miami. She plans to install a total of 21—a nod to Bitcoin’s capped 21 million supply.
Speaking to Cointelegraph last year, she described Nakamoto as one of the most compelling figures of the modern era, with the statues serving as a tribute to Bitcoin’s anonymous creator.
“The statue is designed to give viewers a sense of disappearance, a reminder that its inventor exists only between the lines—today, Satoshi lives in the lines of Bitcoin’s code, enabling humanity’s first decentralized payment system,” she said.
“It represents a hacker in his stereotyped pose, sitting with the laptop on his legs, and is a tribute to all the developers and programmers around the world that helped build the Bitcoin ecosystem, fighting for transparency and freedom.”
