Lugano’s Satoshi Nakamoto Statue Mysteriously Stolen, 0.1 BTC Reward Offered
The figure meant to embody the anonymity of Bitcoin has vanished — quite literally.
In Lugano, Switzerland, residents awoke to find the acclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto statue missing from its installation site. Created by Italian artist Valentina Picozzi, the piece was an optical illusion made of vertical steel slats that revealed the face of Bitcoin’s elusive creator when viewed from a specific angle.
Unveiled on October 25, 2024, during the Plan B Bitcoin forum, the installation quickly became a symbolic centerpiece for Lugano’s push to brand itself as a global crypto hub, in partnership with Swiss-Tether. Its disappearance, reported on August 4, 2025, has left only empty ground — a stark contrast to the layered, vanishing silhouette of Nakamoto that once stood there.
The first to sound the alarm was X user @Grittoshi, who speculated the statue may have been tossed into the lake beside the exhibit. The claim remains unconfirmed.
In response, Picozzi’s collective, Satoshigallery, issued a public call for help — along with a 0.1 BTC reward (around $11,000 at current prices) for any information leading to the artwork’s recovery. In a post on X, the group wrote:
“We are offering 0.1 BTC to whoever will help us recover the Statue of Satoshi Nakamoto that was stolen yesterday in Lugano.
You can steal our symbol, but you will never be able to steal our souls.
We are all in this together and committed to placing the statue in 21 places around the world.”
While no suspects have been identified, the act has sparked widespread attention — both for its audacity and for the symbolic irony: a tribute to a figure defined by disappearance has itself disappeared.
Whether as vandalism or protest, the theft underscores just how deeply the image of Nakamoto continues to resonate within the crypto world — and how far some are willing to go to possess, or erase, that image.
