Key Takeaways
- Laszlo Hanyecz made the first commercial Bitcoin transaction on May 22, 2010, buying 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC.
- Valued at $41 then, those 10,000 BTC are now worth over $770 million, proving massive Bitcoin market growth.
- Having spent over 100,000 BTC, Hanyecz has no regrets; his 2010 trade will next inspire future BTC users.
Bitcoin Pizza Day Keeps Being Celebrated Even After 16 Years
While the bitcoin ecosystem has changed quite a bit since 2010, a certain milestone transaction involving 10,000 BTC and two pizzas keeps being celebrated even after 16 years.
On May 18, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, an early contributor of the legendary Bitcoin Talk forums, posted an offer to complete the first registered commercial transactions ever involving BTC and pizza.
The post stated:
“I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.. like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day. I like having left over pizza to nibble on later. You can make the pizza yourself and bring it to my house or order it for me from a delivery place, but what I’m aiming for is getting food delivered in exchange for bitcoins where I don’t have to order or prepare it myself, kind of like ordering a ‘breakfast platter’ at a hotel or something, they just bring you something to eat and you’re happy!”
While Hanyecz was suggested to exchange these bitcoins for their worth – $41 at that time, but over $770 million now- and purchase the pizzas by himself, he declined. At last, another forum participant, Jeremy Sturdivant, fulfilled his request on May 22, 2010, and the transaction became legend.
In June 2026, Hanyecz announced that the offer was still open, inviting others to buy him some pizza and be paid in bitcoin.
“I will trade 10,000 BTC for 2 of these pizzas any time as long as I have the funds (I usually have plenty). If anyone is interested please let me know. The exchange is favorable for anyone who does it because the 2 pizzas are only about 25 dollars total, maybe 30 if you give the guy a nice tip. If you get me the upgraded extra large ones or something, I can throw in some more bitcoins, just let me know and we’ll work something out,” he declared.
Later, he admitted having spent over 100,000 BTC on pizza that year.
Finally, Hanyecz withdrew his offer after the amount to be claimed rose to $600. “Well I didn’t expect this to be so popular but I can’t really afford to keep doing it since I can’t generate thousands of coins a day anymore. Thanks to everyone who bought me pizza already but I’m kind of holding off on doing any more of these for now,” he said on August 04, 2010.
While Hanyecz was a bitcoin pioneer, contributing to the development of GPU-based bitcoin mining and building the first Bitcoin Core release for Mac, he will always be most remembered for this landmark transaction.
He later assured that he did not regret making these purchases. “I got pizza for contributing to an open-source project. Usually, hobbies are a time sink and money sink, and in this case, my hobby bought me dinner. I think that it’s great that I got to be part of the early history of Bitcoin in that way,” Hanyecz concluded.
