This is one article in a collection of 52 articles published on the basics of Bitcoin. If you are unfamiliar with bitcoin, some of the early articles in the series will be beneficial for this portion of the series discussing bitcoin treasury companies. Please contact us, if you have any questions or comments.
One of the great traditions my wife has instilled in our childrens' bedtime routine is reading every night before bed. The other night I was reading my son the classic folktale Rumpelstiltskin and my mind started thinking about the parallels to the story of bitcoin. Before exploring the parallels a brief summary of the tale is appropriate.
In Rumpelstiltskin, a poor miller attempted to impress the king by bragging that his beautiful daughter had mastered the art of spinning straw into gold. The king, who had a passion for gold, was intrigued so he ordered the miller to send his daughter to the castle immediately. When the miller’s daughter arrived at the castle the king led her to a room filled with straw. The miller’s daughter was provided spools and a spinning wheel and ordered to spin the straw into gold by morning or be killed.
The miller’s daughter, who had no idea how to spin straw into gold, sat crying in the castle when a mysterious man appeared. The mysterious man inquired why she was crying and offered to spin all the straw into gold in exchange for her necklace. With no other options, the miller’s daughter agreed and the little man proceeded to spin all the straw into gold! When the king came into the room the next morning he was delighted to see the straw had been turned into gold. Being a greedy individual, the king led the miller’s daughter to a larger room filled with straw and, once again, ordered her to spin the straw into gold before dawn the next day if she wished to continue to live.
Once again, the miller’s daughter began to weep when the mysterious man appeared again and offered to help. The little man agreed to spin all the straw into gold in exchange for the miller’s daughter’s ring. The mysterious man, true to his word, then spun all the straw into gold. When the king returned the next morning he was thrilled to see all the gold but he was still not satisfied. The king led the miller’s daughter to an even bigger room that was filled with straw and ordered her to spin the straw into gold by the next morning. This time the king promised the miller’s daughter that if she succeeded in this task, she would become the queen.
Once again, the mysterious man appeared. The mysterious man asked the miller’s daughter what she would give him if he spun all the straw into gold. At this point, the miller’s daughter had nothing else she could give the mysterious man. The mysterious man proposed that when miller’s daughter became queen, that her first child would belong to the mysterious man. With few other options and no guarantee that a child would ever be conceived, the miller’s daughter agreed to the terms. The mysterious man again proceeded to spin all the straw into gold.
The miller’s daughter married the king and became queen and eventually welcomed a baby boy into the world. One day, the mysterious man appeared to take the child he was promised. When the mysterious man saw how devastated the queen was to give up her son he agreed to give her three days to try to guess his name and keep her son. After being unsuccessful the first two days of guessing the mysterious man’s name, the queen sent out her most loyal servant who found the mysterious man dancing around a fire singing a song with his name, Rumpelstiltskin. In the end, the queen, much to the shock of the mysterious man, guessed his name and kept her son. One of the morals of Rumpelstiltskin is not to be arrogant no matter what wonderful, one-of-a-kind skill you might possess.
While I was reading this folktale to my son, my mind began to wander to the similarities of Rumpelstiltskin to Satoshi Nakamoto. To date all who have adopted a bitcoin standard (essentially continually converting government issued fiat currency such as dollars into bitcoin which millions around the world have done) have changed their financial fortunes forever. Our previous publications have extensively explained the mechanisms that make the Bitcoin protocol so valuable and we encourage readers to learn about the underlying fundamentals of Bitcoin, but suffice it to say that individuals have been able to spin cash (i.e. the hay in Rumpelstiltskin) into bitcoin (i.e. the gold in Rumpelstiltskin) since 2009. Individuals turning their cash into bitcoin represents the smallest room of hay in Rumpelstiltskin and it has been an incredibly lucrative opportunity for all who deployed this strategy with a long enough time horizon.
In 2021, Michael Saylor at Strategy (formerly known as Microstrategy) embarked on the journey of spinning the second, larger room of “straw” into bitcoin using Satoshi’s creation. Saylor’s implementation of leveraging the corporate tools available to publicly traded companies has been an epic success leading to Strategy holding 632,457 bitcoin which was acquired for 46.5 billion dollars at an average price of 73,527 dollars per bitcoin. As of August 26, 2025 the value of Strategy’s bitcoin holdings is 69.6 billion dollars. Strategy’s bitcoin position has appreciated 23.1 billion dollars. Given the success, it is no surprise other players are jumping in to piggyback on the playbook. Bitcoin treasury companies leveraging Satoshi’s invention to grow the value of their company using bitcoin can be viewed as the larger room of hay in Rumpelstiltskin. By the time this process is complete every company will be a bitcoin company.
On September 6, 2021 El Salvador began accumulating Bitcoin when President Nayib Bukele purchased 200 bitcoin for the country's future. While Bukele’s bitcoin accumulation strategy for El Salvador was mocked by many initially, as of the date of this publication the strategy of purchasing bitcoin daily could be described as nothing short of a home run with the country accumulating 6,273 bitcoin to date. The United States has also established a bitcoin position through criminal prosecution. The Trump administration has taken a pro-Bitcoin stance and has even stated that it is exploring ways to accumulate more bitcoin in a budget neutral way. Countries buying bitcoin and utilizing Satoshi’s invention can be viewed as the largest room of hay in Rumpelstiltskin. The story will be complete (all the straw will be spun into gold) when all of the world’s countries are operating on a bitcoin standard.
The comparisons begin to breakdown when the mysterious men of the tales are examined closely. The creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is shrouded in mystery similar to Rumpelstiltskin who appeared out of the blue to the miller’s daughter. Satoshi was involved in the development of Bitcoin in the early days and was responsible for mining many of the initial blocks. It is hard to extract the exact number of bitcoin Satoshi accumulated from early Bitcoin mining. However, a thorough analysis performed by Sergio Lerner, a cryptocurrency researcher, reviewed the first 36,200 blocks mined during the Bitcoin protocols first 13 months of existence. Using data from the genesis block (the first block in the Bitcoin blockchain which the research presumes was mined by Satoshi), Lerner discovered that 1,125,150 bitcoins were mined from a single mining setup. These bitcoins are scattered across thousands of wallets. At the current price of roughly 110,000 dollars per bitcoin, Satoshi’s bitcoin is worth 123.8 billion dollars based on Lerner’s research. This makes Satoshi one of the top 10 wealthiest individuals on earth!
While Satoshi’s wealth accumulated through bitcoin is staggering, the more interesting thing is Satoshi’s coins have never moved for a profit motive! Additionally, in April 2011 Satoshi disappeared and has not been heard from since, after stating he was moving on to other projects. While Satoshi was involved in the early days of Bitcoin, since its inception the Bitcoin protocol has been run by the nodes that verify the network.
Similar to Rumpelstiltskin, Satoshi’s creation has allowed all who have been patient and humble to churn dollars (straw) into bitcoin (gold) to change their financial outlook. The game created by Satoshi continues to play out in real time before our eyes. However, unlike Rumpelstiltskin, Satoshi dropped off the face of the earth asking for nothing in exchange for his mesmerizing creation and never spending the wealth few who have ever walked the earth have possessed. Perhaps Satoshi knew the tale of Rumpelstiltski and it had taught him the dangers of arrogance. Satoshi’s disappearance and apparent unwillingness to cash in the staggering wealth he earned from his innovation is one of the humblest mysteries the world has ever known. One that is worth celebrating!
