Of Tether, Cantor, and Satoshi statue soft-power diplomacy . . . 

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The state of Florida joins Switzerland, El Salvador, Vietnam and Japan in being gifted a metal effigy of bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator for public display. They all came from the studio of Valentina Picozzi, a 37-year-old Swiss-based Italian artist.

Picozzi was, and presumably remains, the long-term girlfriend of Giancarlo Devasini, 61, the billionaire co-founder of Tether and chief financial officer of the Bitfinex crypto exchange.

This week’s unveiling of the fifth Picozzi Satoshi coincided with a cryptocurrency and AI conference in Miami Beach that was organised by Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether’s go-to bank. Cantor manages the majority of the Tether’s reserve assets and is leading the stablecoin issuer’s ambitious pitch to raise approximately $15bn from investors at a $500bn valuation.

If successful, Cantor would be in line to make an immediate paper profit of nearly $25bn from the fundraise, having last year paid $600mn for a bond convertible to 5 per cent of Tether equity, according to reports.

The bank is also in bed with Bitfinex through Twenty One Capital, the bitcoin treasury company that in April reversed into a Spac owned by Brandon Lutnick, son of US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick. On Joining Donald Trump’s cabinet last year, Lutnick Senior passed control of Cantor to Brandon and his younger brother Kyle.

Devasini, Tether chair, is widely reported to be its biggest shareholder with between 40-47 per cent of the company. If Cantor can deliver the mooted $500bn it could catapult the former plastic surgeon into the global rich list top-five, giving him an estimated wealth of more than $220bn.

Picozzi trained in Verona as a dentist before chancing on crypto as her muse. She is the author of To The Moon, a children’s book that tells the story of how “Satoshi Nakamoto, a brilliant scientist and inventor that lived on planet Genesis, has helped his alpaca Alfie to travel the Crypto Space with Bitcoin”.

In an interview last year with Atlas21, Picozzi said:

During my studies in dentistry and specialization in orthodontics, around 2012, my husband became interested in Bitcoin, focusing on its protocol. I followed him and we traveled around Europe visiting places frequented by hackers involved in its development. I realized that my friends, not being technical experts, had difficulty understanding Bitcoin. At the time, there was a lack of magazines or blogs explaining Bitcoin, and many concluded that it was too complex. So, I started using images to simplify the understanding and transmission of messages and values related to Bitcoin, cypherpunk culture, and libertarian philosophy. I tried to take an artistic approach to educate people about Bitcoin, using art as a form of activism.

Though Devasini first invested in Bitfinex in 2012, we have found nothing in public records to suggest the couple married. Picozzi did not respond to our comment requests.

Companies House filings show Picozzi is the owner and only director of Satoshi Gallery Ltd, which was registered last year and so far has only filed a confirmation statement. Her Instagram profile lists her as a founder of an art outreach programme in El Salvador, where Tether is based.

Devasini and Picozzi’s relationship is no secret — in the book Number Go Up, author Zeke Faux tells of how he gatecrashed Picozzi’s appearance at an NFT-themed art fair in Lugano, Switzerland, in the hope of meeting Devasini — but it’s a detail that tends to be absent in reports of her studio’s civic altruism.

Miami has not yet revealed the final resting place for its Satoshi statue. Mayor Francis Suares tweeted that it would be “permanently displayed in one of our greatest parks by the water!”

In the meantime, Satoshigallery is selling limited-edition mini versions for $15,000 plus plinth and shipping. They also come in paperweight size for $2,200.

Of Picozzi’s art, Faux writes that it tends “towards the kitchy and extremely literal”. We’re philistines to every aspect of this story, so we’ll have to let you be the judge of that: