Vienna Unveils a Satoshi Statue in Tribute to Bitcoin

Set Trending Topics as a preferred source on Google.

No one knows what Satoshi Nakamoto looks like, but starting today, Bitcoin’s creator sits by the water in Vienna. The association Bitcoin Austria is unveiling a statue of Satoshi Nakamoto at 5 p.m. this Wednesday in Viertel Zwei, a neighborhood in Vienna’s second district. That makes Vienna the first Austrian location in a global series that is eventually meant to comprise 21 Satoshi statues in 21 countries.

Where to Find the Statue

The sculpture stands at the head of the lake next to the OMV building Hoch Zwei in Viertel Zwei, just a few minutes’ walk from the Krieau station on the U2 subway line. Bitpanda is a close neighbor: The Vienna crypto unicorn’s headquarters is also in Viertel Zwei, just a few steps from the statue. After the unveiling, it will be open to the public around the clock, according to Bitcoin Austria. The ceremony, hosted by the Viennese Bitcoiner Der Fil (Philipp Horwath), also marks the 15th anniversary of the association, which was founded in 2011.

What the Statue Shows

The figure depicts a programmer sitting at a laptop. It consists of 61 mirror-polished stainless steel profiles on a base of Corten steel and is about 90 centimeters tall, or roughly one and a half meters including the base. The twist: From the side, the figure is clearly recognizable, but from the front it almost completely dissolves. Anyone who stands behind the statue appears to viewers in Satoshi’s place. The design is meant to represent the anonymity of Bitcoin’s creator and to express the community’s motto: “We are all Satoshi.”

The statue is deliberately not a portrait. It honors no single person and would remain unchanged even if Satoshi’s identity were one day revealed, said Tobias Girstmair of Bitcoin Austria. Who is behind the pseudonym remains an open question: Most recently, The New York Times named the British cryptographer Adam Back as Bitcoin’s creator, a claim he denies.

Why Vienna

For Bitcoin Austria, the choice of Vienna is rooted in the history of the Austrian School of Economics. Carl Menger described how money emerges from barter without needing a state to invent it. Friedrich August von Hayek later argued for competition among private currencies. In the Bitcoin community, both ideas are seen as the theoretical foundation for a currency that works without a central bank.

The statue was deliberately funded without a single major sponsor. Between December 2025 and August 2026, more than 120 individuals and several companies donated a total of more than 1.3 Bitcoin, or about €97,000 at current prices. The lead sponsor is the Vienna-based crypto broker Bitpanda, joined by Incrementum and the developer of Viertel Zwei, among others. Further donations will go toward maintenance, insurance and minor repairs.

Where Else to Find Satoshi Statues

The Vienna figure comes from Satoshi Gallery, the project of the Italian artist Valentina Picozzi, who has been involved with Bitcoin since 2012 and started the project as street art. Under the title “21 Nodes,” 21 identical statues are to be placed around the world, distributed across the globe like the nodes of a network. So far, statues stand in places including:

• Lugano, Switzerland: The first statue in the series was unveiled at the Plan B Forum in October 2024. In August 2025, it disappeared and was found shortly afterward on the lakeshore.
• New York: Since December 2025, a statue has stood in the museum of the New York Stock Exchange, right in the heart of the traditional financial system.
• Tokyo: outside the Tokyo Bitcoin Base, a meeting place for Japan’s Bitcoin community
• Hanoi, Vietnam
• El Zonte, El Salvador: at the so-called Bitcoin Beach, where the cryptocurrency was used in everyday life even before it became legal tender

The Satoshi monument in Budapest predates the series: In September 2021, Hungarian Bitcoin fans unveiled a bronze bust in Graphisoft Park with a face made of polished aluminum. There, too, viewers see their own reflection when they look Satoshi in the face. It is considered the first monument to Bitcoin’s creator anywhere in the world.