Hunger is a powerful motivator. On May 22, 2010, it drove a programmer in Florida to make a trade that would eventually become the most expensive dinner in human history.
Most people know the basic story of the guy who bought pizza with bitcoin. His name is Laszlo Hanyecz. He spent 10,000 BTC on two Papa John’s pizzas. At today’s prices, that’s hundreds of millions of dollars—sometimes pushing toward a billion depending on the week’s volatility. It sounds like a tragedy. A "what if" story that would keep anyone awake at night.
But here is the thing: Laszlo doesn't regret it.
Honestly, the "tragedy" narrative is a bit of a mid-curve take. To understand why he did it, you have to understand what Bitcoin was in 2010. It wasn't "digital gold." It wasn't a Wall Street institutional asset class or something you could buy on a sleek app with a face scan. It was a weird, niche experiment. It was a toy for cryptographers and cypherpunks.
Back then, Bitcoin had no established market price. There were no exchanges like Coinbase. You couldn't go to an ATM and get cash for it. It was just numbers on a ledger that a few dozen people were passing back and forth to see if the system actually worked. By being the guy who bought pizza with bitcoin, Laszlo didn't lose a fortune; he actually gave the currency its very first real-world valuation.
The Logistics of the World’s First Bitcoin Transaction
It wasn't a "click to pay" situation. Laszlo posted on the Bitcointalk forum, which was the town square of the early crypto world.
He wrote: "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."
He even specified his toppings. He wanted onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, pepperoni, tomatoes—the works. No "weird fish topping" or anything like that. Just standard pizzas.
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It took a few days. People were skeptical. One user pointed out that 10,000 BTC was worth maybe $41 at the time, which seemed like a fair trade for $25 worth of pizza, but nobody knew how to actually facilitate the swap. Eventually, a 19-year-old student named Jeremy Sturdivant (username "jercos") took him up on the offer.
Laszlo sent the 10,000 BTC. Jeremy ordered the pizzas from Papa John's and had them delivered to Laszlo’s house in Jacksonville.
The transaction was complete.
This was the "Genesis Block" of commerce. For the first time, Bitcoin moved from a theoretical concept to a medium of exchange. It was no longer just code; it was a slice of pepperoni.
Why 10,000 BTC?
You have to remember that mining was incredibly easy in 2010. You didn't need a warehouse full of specialized ASIC miners in Texas or Iceland. You could mine Bitcoin on a basic home computer using just the CPU.
Laszlo was a pioneer in GPU mining. He figured out that you could use graphics cards—the stuff that renders video games—to solve the hashes much faster than a standard processor. Because he was one of the few people doing this, he was "printing" Bitcoin at a massive rate. 10,000 BTC wasn't a life's savings for him; it was a few days of mining. It felt like "play money."
If he hadn't spent it on pizza, he probably would have spent it on something else, or lost the private keys, or sold it when the price hit $1. Very few people have the "diamond hands" to hold an asset from $0.004 to $60,000.
The Economic Ripple Effect of Bitcoin Pizza Day
Every year on May 22, the crypto community celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day. It’s a holiday. People eat pizza, post memes, and talk about the current value of those 10,000 coins.
But there’s a deeper economic lesson here.
In a weird way, the guy who bought pizza with bitcoin solved the "Chicken and Egg" problem. For a currency to be valuable, people have to use it. But people don't want to use it unless it has value. By spending that massive amount of BTC on a meal, Laszlo proved that the network functioned. He showed that if you have a private key and a willing participant, you can bypass banks, credit card processors, and borders.
The Seller's Side of the Story
What happened to Jeremy Sturdivant, the teenager who received the 10,000 BTC?
He didn't become a billionaire. Like most people in the early days, he spent the Bitcoin on other things—mostly travel and video games. He treated it like currency, which was the whole point. He told The Sun in a later interview that he certainly didn't see it as an investment at the time. To him, he was just helping a guy get some pizza and making a few bucks in the process.
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It’s easy to look back with 20/20 hindsight and call these guys "fools." But if everyone had just hoarded their coins and never spent them, Bitcoin might have died in 2011. A currency that nobody spends is just a dead database.
Misconceptions About Laszlo’s Fortune
People often think Laszlo is poor now, or that he’s bitter. Neither is true.
He continued to work as a software developer. He’s a guy who likes to build things. In 2018, he actually did it again—he bought more pizza using the Lightning Network, which is a "Layer 2" solution designed to make Bitcoin transactions instant and nearly free. This time, he only paid 0.00649 BTC.
He’s still involved in the space. He’s still a coder. He views his role in history with a sense of humor.
The Math of the Pizza
Let's look at how the value shifted. It’s staggering.
- May 2010: 10,000 BTC = $41 (The Pizzas)
- May 2011: 10,000 BTC = $10,000 (Parity with the Dollar)
- May 2013: 10,000 BTC = $1,200,000 (The Million Dollar Meal)
- May 2017: 10,000 BTC = $20,000,000
- May 2021: 10,000 BTC = $380,000,000
- Today: Depending on the market, it often floats between $600 million and $900 million.
Think about that. A single bite of that pizza cost more than a fleet of private jets. It’s the ultimate "butterfly effect" example in finance. One small forum post created a legacy that will likely be talked about as long as Bitcoin exists.
What This Story Teaches Us About the Future of Money
The saga of the guy who bought pizza with bitcoin is essentially a lesson in the "Time Value of Money" and the nature of "High-Time Preference."
Most people in the modern world are used to inflationary currency. If you have $100 in your pocket, you know that in ten years, it will buy fewer groceries than it does today. So, you have an incentive to spend it.
Bitcoin is different. It is disinflationary (and eventually deflationary in practice due to lost coins). If you believe an asset will be worth significantly more in the future, you become hesitant to spend it today. This is the "HODL" mentality.
But if everyone HODLs, the economy stops.
Laszlo’s pizza purchase represents the friction between Bitcoin as a "Store of Value" and Bitcoin as a "Medium of Exchange." Today, most people treat it like digital gold—they buy it and hide it away. But the original whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto was titled "A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." Laszlo was the only one actually following the original vision.
Is Bitcoin Still Practical for Pizza?
Technically, yes. But it's different now.
If you tried to buy a pizza on the main Bitcoin blockchain today, you might pay $5 to $50 in transaction fees depending on network congestion. You’d have to wait 10 to 60 minutes for a confirmation. Your pizza would be cold by the time the block was mined.
This is why "Layer 2" technologies like Lightning are so important. They allow for the kind of small, everyday transactions that Laszlo pioneered, without clogging up the main ledger.
Actionable Insights for the Modern Crypto Era
If you’re looking at the story of Laszlo and trying to figure out how to navigate the current market, here is the takeaway.
Don't beat yourself up over "missed" opportunities. Everyone has a story about a coin they sold too early or a project they ignored. The market is built on the exchange of value at a specific point in time.
If you want to actually use crypto rather than just speculate on it, consider these steps:
1. Learn about the Lightning Network. If you actually want to spend BTC on coffee or small items, don't use the main chain. Get a wallet that supports Lightning (like Phoenix or Strike). It’s the only way to make small payments feasible.
2. Understand "Unit Bias." People see Bitcoin at $60k or $100k and think they can't afford it. You don't have to buy a whole Bitcoin. You can buy 1,000 Satoshis. Laszlo spent 10,000 Full Bitcoins. Today, you’d be lucky to spend 0.0005 BTC for the same meal.
3. Separate "Spending" from "Investing." If you want to use crypto for privacy or utility, set aside a small amount of "spending" crypto. Keep your long-term "store of value" assets in cold storage. This prevents the "Pizza Regret" that haunts so many latecomers.
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4. Tax Implications are Real. In 2010, nobody cared about the IRS and Bitcoin. In 2026, every time you buy a pizza with crypto, it is technically a taxable event (a capital gains realization). If your 0.001 BTC increased in value since you bought it, you owe the government a cut of that gain when you swap it for dough and cheese.
The story of the guy who bought pizza with bitcoin isn't a warning about spending. It’s a testament to the fact that for anything to have value, someone has to be brave enough to be the first to use it. Laszlo Hanyecz didn't lose millions; he bought his way into the history books for the price of two large pies. Not a bad deal, all things considered.