There is one special day for the global crypto community that they pay particular attention to and celebrate it every single year.
On that day fourteen years ago, the first ever purchase was made with Bitcoin and this money, enormous at the current BTC exchange rate, was paid for a thing also loved by many within the crypto community – a pizza, even two of them.
How Bitcoin Pizza Day came about
This remarkable event took place in the spring of 2010 – more than five months after the enigmatic Bitcoin developer Satoshi Nakamoto left BTC in the hands of the developer community and left the public space to move on to other projects.
The Bitcoin Pizza day was a turning point in the history of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general – this was the very first time when BTC was used as real money and was spent on actual goods; it was the very first practical application of crypto in real life.
Back in that year, on May 18, a software engineer Laszlo Hanyecz decided to buy two pizzas. Hanyecz was a Bitcoin enthusiast and a miner. He wanted to buy something tangible using his beloved nascent cryptocurrency. Bitcoin then cost very little, compared to now, and $10,000 BTC were worth approximately $41.
That would make it $20.50 for each of the two pizzas he wanted to get. The next thing he did was publish a post on a BTC forum, offering 10,000 BTC for two large pizzas – he wanted to leave some for the following day as well. Hanyecz wrote that he would pay this amount of BTC if anyone cared to prepare two pizzas themselves or buy them in a pizzeria and then deliver it to his threshold. He highlighted that he wanted them to be brought to his door.
First, nobody responded to his public forum post. Back then, Bitcoin remained a just recently born concept and did not have many enthusiasts around it. However, on May 22, a user from that Bitcoin forum called Jeremy Sturdivant responded that he would accept that deal. What he did was order two large pizzas from a Papa John’s place and got them delivered to Hanyecz’s house in the state of Florida. Later, he received the promised Bitcoins and that was the very first officially documented BTC payment for a tangible product.
Significance of the first documented Bitcoin payment
This was a start of the journey Bitcoin took towards turning into a widely recognized and accepted currency that would in the future easily compete with US dollar or any other traditional fiat currency. These days, this payment of 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas became a legend for the cryptocurrency community, especially since BTC now is worth roughly $67,000 per coin and 10,000 BTC is equal to a massive $684,250,000.
As for Laszlo Hanyecz, he does not regret spending that huge amount of Bitcoins, that now cost a fortune, on the pizzas. In multiple interviews, he points out that the transaction he made in 2010 was a crucial step in proving Bitcoin utility and BTC’s shiny future as a real currency that can compete with the US dollar. Besides, for him buying the pizzas with BTC was part of an experiment to test its qualities as a means of payment for the future.
Now, every year, Bitcoin enthusiasts around the world celebrate the Bitcoin Pizza day. They get together to tell each other Bitcoin-related stories, have fun and buy pizza with BTC. A large number of pizza restaurants have special deals on that day and promote the Bitcoin Pizza day as well. Many crypto companies help to facilitate payments from Bitcoin into fiat for those who wish to buy a pizza with the world’s most expensive cryptocurrency.
In May 2021, a venture investor and a Bitcoiner Anthony Pompliano organized a project which he named “Bitcoin Pizza.” It took place in ten major US cities, including Washington D.C. Even though pizzas in specially decorated carton boxes were sold not for BTC but for US dollars, still all the profits were donated to the Human Rights Foundation fund, which helps Bitcoin developers among others. 10,000 pizzas were sold in special boxes during that event.
How big Bitcoin has grown since 2010
A lot of time has passed since Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas and wrote himself down in Bitcoin history. Since then, a lot more cryptocurrencies emerged – in 2011, Charlie Lee launched Litecoin, in 2012, Ripple and XRP emerged, then 2013 saw the emergence of the first meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Ethereum came into the market in 2015 and many, many other cryptos.
Bitcoin has greatly expanded in price and in terms of its adoption. Now, you can easily buy various real-world things for it – from food to luxurious watches, cars and real estate. BTC has been through four halvings, it reached an all-time high of $73,750 in March this year and in January the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot Bitcoin ETFs which fueled massive daily purchases of BTC by those funds, thus turning Bitcoin into an asset that Wall Street wants despite all the criticism that has been sent against BTC by traditional bankers and financial experts in the past years.
