A group of cryptocurrency investors imagined living in a crypto state where everything was based on blockchain technology and, of course, 100% tax-free. The project was so serious that they even found a private island in the middle of the Pacific and named the place Satoshi Island in honor of the creator of bitcoin.
In it, crypto investors could move in and acquire their citizenship in exchange for a modest 120,000 euros. Eight years later, Satoshi Island has not only failed to become the promised tropical crypto paradise of bitcoin and NFT, but is at risk of disappearing under the waters of the Pacific.
The origin of the initiative. Just as I collected FortuneIn 2017, with the support of more than 50,000 investors, the “Satoshi Island” project was launched with the development of a new crypto nation on the private island in the South Pacific previously known as Lataro Island, in the Vanuatu archipelago, east of Australia and halfway between the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia.
The small 32 km2 island was leased to the local government of Vanuatu for 75 years by British real estate entrepreneur Anthony Welch who, according to France 24had been living there for more than a decade. In 2021, the transformation to “Satoshi Island” was presented, named in honor of Satoshi Nakamoto, with the promise of becoming a crypto city-state, without taxes and based exclusively on blockchain and NFT. The vision included digital citizenship, “crypto-friendly” modular housing, and an economy untethered from traditional fiat.
Real estate promises and realities. The plan was articulated under several axes: issuing citizenship and ownership NFTs, building modular homes on 21,000 available plots, adopting renewable energy, decentralized governance and attracting a global community of crypto investors. It sounds like a complicated formula to attract new neighbors to the island and, in the process, “rent” them part of the 90% of the island that was uninhabited.
“We’re trying to build a community. We’re not looking to develop for profit,” Welch told The Guardian in a satellite interview with the island, given that the island does not have electricity or internet. Bad omen for an economy based on digital transactions.
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The wall of territorial sovereignty. According to what was published by the specialized portal Decriptoin 2022 the government of Vanuatu, with then Prime Minister Bob Loughman, supported the initiative after ensuring that they had received thousands of applications, which gave more visibility to the project.
Obviously, despite the many NFTs of Satoshi Island citizenship, the reality is that investors who wanted to live on the island had to obtain Vanuatu citizenship, which as a “Golden Visa” was granted in exchange for a generous donation of 120,000 euros. According to data from the International Monetary Fund, around 40% of its income comes from the “Golden Visa”, so the Satoshi Island project was an excellent attraction to attract new residents and obtain large income.
The blow of reality. Shortly after, the first alarm signals began to emerge: absence of infrastructure, significant delays in the implementation of the habitability project and the legal complexity of transforming NFTs into property titles recognized by the State (the real one, that of Vanuatu).
Little by little the project has been deflating until, in July 2025, a publication in the project’s X profile marked the end of the cryptotropical dream.
Furthermore, the project’s demise is not just figurative, as the Vanuatu archipelago is highly vulnerable to sea level rise, coastal erosion and extreme weather events resulting from climate change, a forecast that is already becoming a reality in its neighboring Tuvalu archipelago, which has already begun its climate-related migration.
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Image | Vladi
