Satoshi Nakamoto Statue Sinks to the Lakebed, Stirring Unease in Europe's So-Called 'Crypto Capital'

By Techflow David

Translator: Naetitia

On the morning of August 3, in Lugano, Switzerland, municipal workers retrieved several stainless steel fragments from the lake.

Just hours earlier, these fragments had formed a complete statue of Satoshi Nakamoto. A tribute from the city to the creator of Bitcoin had now become scrap metal at the bottom of the lake.

Twitter user @Grittoshi was the first to notice the statue's disappearance. He recalled that on the evening of August 1, Switzerland’s National Day, the statue was still standing in Parco Ciani park, while young people celebrated at nearby outdoor cafés, raising their glasses in joy.

A few hours later, the artwork—designed over 21 months and claimed to "disappear" when viewed from the front—did indeed disappear, albeit in a way no one had anticipated.

Satoshigallery, an art collective dedicated to erecting Satoshi Nakamoto statues in 21 cities around the world, quickly offered a reward of 0.1 Bitcoin on social media for clues.

However, the mystery was solved surprisingly easily.

Once again, it was Twitter user @Grittoshi who applied "Occam's Razor" to deduce the situation: revelers from the National Day celebrations, possibly intoxicated, had passed by the statue and impulsively decided to "have some fun." They couldn't have moved the statue far, so the most likely scenario was that they threw it into the nearby lake.

A few hours later, his theory was confirmed—municipal workers indeed recovered the shattered remains of Satoshi from the lakebed.

No one was apprehended, and perhaps no one ever will be. To local residents, this seems likely to be a drunken prank by a group of young revelers.

The statue had been secured to its base by just two welding points, making it easy to break off with a bit of teamwork. In a sense, this act of destruction is even more disheartening than premeditated vandalism: to the perpetrators, this valuable statue was nothing more than an amusement for a drunken night.

The statue is indeed broken. Satoshigallery posted on Twitter: "You can steal our symbol, but you can never steal our soul."

Satoshi Nakamoto may indeed be the soul of the entire crypto industry, but he may not be the soul of Lugano, Switzerland.

Behind this bold declaration lies a stark reality: last October, the statue was unveiled at Lugano's most significant blockchain event, with the mayor personally attending and hailing it as a representation of the city's spirit of digital innovation.

Less than a year later, it was thrown into the lake by the city's own residents.

As Lugano's government ambitiously declares its intention to become the "Crypto Capital of Europe," in Switzerland—a country globally renowned for its crypto-friendly stance—the gap between official enthusiasm and public sentiment might be deeper than Lake Lugano itself.

The statue can be salvaged, but what about trust?

Lugano’s Plan B: A Crypto Capital Built with Money?

In March 2022, when Bitcoin was hovering around $40,000, Lugano’s mayor Michele Foletti stood under the spotlight to announce an ambitious plan. Standing beside him was Paolo Ardoino, CTO of stablecoin giant Tether.

Together, they unveiled the "Plan B" initiative, aiming to transform this small Swiss city of just 60,000 residents into the "Crypto Capital of Europe."

The name "Plan B" carries a dual meaning. For the crypto community, it represents an alternative when traditional financial systems fail. For Lugano, however, it signifies something else—a strategy to overtake other Swiss cities that have already taken the lead in the crypto race.

Two years later, the results appear promising at first glance:

Tether reported that the October 2024 Plan B Forum drew a record-breaking 2,500+ global attendees, with Lugano registering 6,121 cryptocurrency transactions over the course of the event week.

Nearly 100 local merchants now accept Bitcoin and USDT payments, while 300 accept the city’s LVGA token. Even Lugano’s football club jerseys feature the Bitcoin logo.

But a closer look at these figures reveals a different story.

What was the total amount of the 6,121 transactions? Just $160,000, averaging $26 per transaction—a surprisingly low figure.

"e chose to put the bitcoin logo, not Tether, because the message we want to convey is an educational one." Ardoino explained in an interview. However, local merchants privately complained that most customers still prefer to pay with cards or cash. Accepting crypto payments feels more like complying with government directives than meeting genuine market demand.

More nuanced is Lugano’s relationship with Tether. The world’s largest stablecoin issuer is not only the primary sponsor of Plan B but also deeply involved in the city’s digital transformation.

The question is: Is it wise to bet a city’s crypto future on a single commercial company? Especially one as controversial as Tether, whose reserve transparency remains a looming issue in the crypto world.

The incident of the Satoshi Nakamoto statue being thrown into the lake seems almost prophetic.

This reportedly costly artwork prioritized visual effects—designed to "disappear" when viewed from specific angles—while neglecting basic security measures, being secured by just two welding points.

This focus on form over substance raises the question: Is it also a reflection of the entire Plan B initiative?

While other crypto ecosystems have grown organically through years of accumulation, Lugano opted for a shortcut: paving the way with money and creating buzz through marketing. But just like the statue that sank to the lakebed, a technological transplant without societal roots may ultimately be nothing more than an expensive decoration.

Switzerland’s Crypto Landscape: Lugano’s Misaligned Competition

If Switzerland’s crypto landscape were likened to a marathon, Lugano would undoubtedly be the runner who started the latest but is sprinting the hardest.

Zug, a small town with just 30,000 residents, embarked on its crypto journey as early as 2013. When entrepreneur Johann Gevers relocated his company Monetas there, the term "Crypto Valley" was merely an aspirational borrowing from Silicon Valley. By 2024, however, Zug had become home to 719 blockchain companies, accounting for 41% of all such firms in Switzerland.

More importantly, Zug gave birth to Ethereum—if Bitcoin is the Adam of the crypto world, Ethereum is its Eve.

Numbers are cold, but they tell very different stories of development paths. In Zug, 47% of blockchain companies focus on financial services, while 43% specialize in infrastructure. This wasn’t the result of government planning but rather market-driven choices, fueled by low taxes, relaxed regulations, and, most crucially, an organically grown entrepreneurial ecosystem.

People working at blockchain companies in Zug likely live in the same neighborhoods, send their kids to the same schools, and discuss technical issues at the same bars over the weekend.

In contrast, Ticino canton, where Lugano is located, hosts only 103 blockchain companies. Yet Lugano is unwilling to play a secondary role.

When launching Plan B in 2022, their strategy was clear: if they couldn’t replicate Zug’s first-mover advantage, they would carve out a different path. Zug is an engineer’s paradise, Geneva is the domain of compliance experts, Zurich is the fintech hub—so what does Lugano aspire to be?

The answer: a testing ground for consumer applications.

Lugano chose a seemingly more glamorous route—bringing cryptocurrency into the hands of everyday people. However, two years after Plan B’s launch, merchants accepting Bitcoin payments appear more to be playing along than responding to genuine demand.

Even Lugano’s local McDonald’s accepts Bitcoin payments.

Source: PlanB.lugano

More awkward is the internal competition among Swiss cities. In 2023, Zug announced an increase in the cryptocurrency payment cap for taxes from 100,000 CHF to 1.5 million CHF—a practical application scenario. That same year, Lugano followed suit by issuing blockchain bonds worth 100 million CHF. While this seemed innovative, to ordinary citizens, how does it differ from traditional bonds?

Lugano seems determined to cover in two years what Zug has achieved in ten.

But building a crypto ecosystem isn’t like erecting a statue—once it’s up, the job is done. It requires time to ferment, failed projects as fertilizer, and genuine participation from the local community.

The Satoshi Nakamoto statue being thrown into the lake might not signify that Lugano residents dislike Bitcoin; perhaps they simply don’t care.

Forcing a crypto agenda in a city lacking crypto DNA is like planting rice in the desert—not impossible, but costly and against natural principles.

The Statue as a Metaphor

The night Satoshi Nakamoto’s statue spent at the bottom of the lake might be its most ironic moment since its creation. Designed to "honor the spirit of decentralization," the artwork ultimately required centralized municipal forces to retrieve it.

While Lugano’s officials talk about a blockchain revolution, its citizens have their own priorities in life.

The drunken youths who tossed the statue into the lake on Swiss National Day were likely not opponents of cryptocurrency. Their act of vandalism was probably less about ideology and more about convenience—it was simply there, an object that looked like it could provide some entertainment.

This casual indifference is more troubling than outright hatred. Hatred, at least, signifies attention; indifference implies "whatever."

The deeper issue lies in the development model of "embracing crypto" itself. The success of Switzerland’s Zug stems from a decade of organic growth—a collaborative ecosystem built by entrepreneurs, investors, and tech geeks. Lugano, on the other hand, is attempting to replicate this process in just two years through top-down administrative efforts.

It’s akin to trying to recreate the flavor of slow-cooked stew using a microwave—it may look done, but it doesn’t taste right.

When the government changes, budgets tighten, or the next policy trend emerges, will the crypto-friendly Plan B still be a priority?

Statues can be re-welded, even fortified to be indestructible, but once trust is fractured, repairing it is far more challenging than one might imagine.

The youths who threw Satoshi into the lake weren’t bad people, but pushing a crypto agenda in a city that’s indifferent to cryptocurrency may not yield optimistic results.