KEYTAKEAWAYS
- Bitcoin Pizza Day commemorates the first real-world transaction using BTC—Laszlo Hanyecz buying two pizzas for 10,000 BTC in 2010.
- What started as a $25 meal became a historic symbol of utility, with 10,000 BTC now worth nearly $1 billion.
- More than a quirky milestone, Bitcoin Pizza Day represents the birth of decentralized finance in everyday life.
CONTENT
Bitcoin Pizza Day marks the first real-world BTC purchase—10,000 BTC for two pizzas in 2010—symbolizing the start of crypto’s journey from experiment to global phenomenon.
WHAT IS BITCOIN PIZZA DAY?
Bitcoin Pizza Day is one of the most iconic and symbolic moments in crypto history.
Ever wondered how much the world’s most expensive pizza cost? The answer: 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC).
And no—it’s not a meme or an urban legend. It really happened.
On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, a Florida-based programmer, posted on a crypto forum offering 10,000 BTC in exchange for two pizzas. At the time, Bitcoin was only about two years old, known only to a small group of cypherpunks and early adopters. Hanyecz, one of the first to mine Bitcoin, became the first person ever to use it in a real-world transaction—buying two Papa John’s pizzas.
✅ The two large pizzas Hanyecz received in exchange looked absolutely delicious!
That simple exchange didn’t just satisfy a pizza craving—it made history.
It marked the first known purchase of a physical good using cryptocurrency, signaling the beginning of Bitcoin’s journey from an obscure peer-to-peer digital cash system to a global financial asset.
Today, May 22 is celebrated every year as Bitcoin Pizza Day—a tribute to how far crypto has come, and a reminder of its humble (and delicious) beginnings.
🍕 Fun fact: those two pizzas would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars today.
Makes you wonder—what could your BTC buy ten years from now?
>>> More to read: Let’s Celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day 2024 !
ꚰ CoinRank x Bitget – Sign up & Trade!
THE PRICE AND STORY OF BITCOIN PIZZA DAY
In 2010, the 10,000 BTC used by Laszlo Hanyecz was worth roughly $41, while the two pizzas he received were valued at around $25. Even at the time, it wasn’t exactly a great deal.
But that’s not what made the transaction legendary.
🪙 What truly immortalized this moment was the exponential rise of Bitcoin’s value over the next 14 years:
- 2010: 1 BTC ≈ $0.004
- 2013: Surpasses $1,000
- 2017: Hits $19,000
- 2021: All-time high of $69,000
- May 2025: 10,000 BTC ≈ $996 million USD
Despite the jaw-dropping numbers, Laszlo has no regrets. In an interview with CNN years later, he reflected on the trade with calm acceptance.
➤ “I just thought it was fun. It was my way of making Bitcoin useful,” he said.
When asked if losing hundreds of millions kept him up at night, he simply replied:
➤ “Thinking like that doesn’t help me.”
To the crypto community, Laszlo isn’t someone who missed out on fortune.
He’s a pioneer who took action when Bitcoin was still an idea, helping kickstart the real-world use of crypto. Today, he’s more than just a name—he’s a Web3 legend.
>>> More to read: What is Bitcoin: A Comprehensive Overview
WHY BITCOIN PIZZA DAY MATTERS TO THE CRYPTO WORLD
In blockchain history, there have been countless milestones—protocol upgrades, ATHs, forks, forks of forks. But few moments carry the symbolic weight and narrative power of Bitcoin Pizza Day.
Because this wasn’t just about pizza, it was the moment Bitcoin stepped out of the whitepaper and into the real world.
Before May 22, 2010, Bitcoin was just an idea passed around cryptography forums—a theoretical concept debated by tech enthusiasts. No one knew if it could ever be spent. Then Laszlo Hanyecz made it real—proving that 10,000 BTC could buy two Papa John’s pizzas.
That simple act of exchange marked the birth of utility in crypto. It cracked open the door for blockchain to move beyond theory and into practice. Bitcoin Pizza Day proved that crypto assets could serve as a medium of exchange—kickstarting a new financial experiment that would lay the groundwork for everything from DeFi to NFTs and the broader Web3 revolution.
To the traditional financial world, it may have seemed like a silly or reckless move. But for the crypto community, it was a conscious act of disruption—a playful, voluntary sacrifice that helped Bitcoin cross from digital abstraction to historical reality.
That’s why, every year on May 22, the crypto world—across chains, coins, and borders—sets aside its tribal fights.
To share a slice of pizza, and honor the man who started it all.
🍕 The Bitcoin Pizza Guy.
