Satoshi Nakamoto takes his place opposite the Wall Street bull. An anonymous polished metal figure sits where traditional finance has dominated for decades. Bitcoin, once marginalized, is now at the heart of the system it was supposed to bypass.
Satoshi Nakamoto sits opposite the Wall Street bull
A new symbolic monument to Bitcoin has been installed on Wall Street, at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE): a statue of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of the blockchain.
Facing him, enthroned since 1989, is the bronze bull, a timeless emblem of traditional finance and stock market optimism. It is a meaningful face-off: the old financial world versus the most significant monetary revolution since the gold rush.
The work, designed by Italian artist Valentina Picozzi, alias Satoshi Gallery, represents the silhouette of a hooded figure with a computer on their lap, the embodiment of Satoshi.
Made of thin slices of polished metal, the statue reveals the void through its structure. Viewed from the front, only the silhouette remains visible, as if drawn in filigree, a metaphor for the lines of code that make up the Bitcoin protocol.
“Satoshi Nakamoto”
Valentina Picozzi – @satoshigalleryTwenty One Capital places a statue of Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of bitcoin, in NYSE. Its new home marks a shared ground between emerging systems and established institutions. From code to culture, the placement… pic.twitter.com/sTiNq3h5HY
— NYSE 🏛 (@NYSE) December 10, 2025
Twenty One Capital is installing a statue of Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin, at the NYSE. This new location symbolizes common ground between emerging systems and established institutions. From code to culture, this installation embodies an artistic reflection on how new ideas become part of shared history.
This is the fifth statue in a global project that will eventually include 21 statues, a nod to the limit of 21 million BTC. Currently, there are statues in Lugano, Switzerland; El Zonte (Bitcoin Beach) in El Salvador; Tokyo, Japan; and Hanoi, Vietnam.
In addition, the installation of the statue coincides with the anniversary of the launch of the Bitcoin mailing list, initiated by Nakamoto on December 10, 2008.
Since then, Bitcoin has gone from being a marginal experiment to a strategic asset.
Today, more than 3.7 million BTC, or more than $336 billion, is held by institutions, companies, and governments.
Jack Mallers and Tether launch their Bitcoin treasury, the first to enter the New York Stock Exchange.
The statue of Satoshi Nakamoto on Wall Street would not have been possible without the involvement of Twenty One Capital (XXI), a recently launched treasury company backed by Jack Mallers, founder of the Strike exchange platform, and Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin.
This new Bitcoin treasury, which competes with Michael Saylor’s Strategy, aims to facilitate exposure to Bitcoin through more traditional financial channels.
But behind this symbolic operation lies a fundamental contradiction. Twenty One Capital holds more than 43,500 BTC, making it the third-largest private holder of Bitcoin in the world, just behind miner Marathon Digital (53,700 BTC) and Strategy (660,000 BTC).
An impressive performance… but one that raises questions. Because these treasury companies, although they appear to be allies of Bitcoin, are in fact perverting the philosophy of Bitcoin by promoting its ownership by trusted third parties. Bitcoin was designed to make individuals sovereign, not to make them dependent on intermediaries once again.
Thus, delegating the custody of one’s BTC to a company is tantamount to replicating the vulnerabilities of the traditional banking system: exposure to censorship, fund freezes, and seizures under regulatory pressure. This paradox raises an essential question: can we truly celebrate the Bitcoin revolution… while centralizing its use?
