WealthClock Story·Bitcoin·6-minute read
The Most Expensive Pizza Ever Ordered
In May 2010, a programmer traded 10,000 Bitcoin for two Papa John’s pizzas. Here’s what happened, what those coins are worth now, and what the story says about the amount you own.
On May 18, 2010, a Florida programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz posted a simple offer on the BitcoinTalk forum. He would pay 10,000 Bitcoin to anyone willing to get him two large pizzas. He wanted leftovers for the next day.
At the time, Bitcoin was barely a year old. It had almost no price because almost nobody was trading it. The coins were closer to points in an online experiment than to money.
01The offer nobody wanted
The forum reaction was lukewarm. One skeptic pointed out that Hanyecz could simply sell his coins for about $41 in cash and buy the pizzas himself. Hanyecz wasn’t after the cheapest deal. He said he just thought it would be interesting to say he’d paid for a pizza with Bitcoin.
For four days, nobody took him up on it.
02The deal
On May 22, a 19-year-old forum user named Jeremy Sturdivant, who went by “jercos,” accepted. He ordered two pizzas from Papa John’s, paid with his own card, and had them delivered to Hanyecz’s house. In return, Hanyecz sent him 10,000 BTC.
It became the first documented time Bitcoin was traded for a physical good. Every May 22 is now celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day.
Each of those coins was worth less than half a cent. Each pizza cost 5,000 of them.
Run your own pizza math
Enter any amount of Bitcoin, the amount you own, or the amount you wish you did.
03What happened next
Hanyecz didn’t stop at two pizzas. He kept making Bitcoin-for-pizza trades through the summer of 2010 before ending the offer that August. Sturdivant didn’t hold his coins either. He has said he never thought of them as an investment and spent them on a road trip across the United States.
Both men have said they don’t regret it. At the time, nobody could know what Bitcoin would become, and the trade did something no spreadsheet could: it proved people would accept Bitcoin for something real.
The same 10,000 coins, valued at different moments. The number of coins never changed. Only the price around them did.
04Two ways to read the story
The regret version
A man spent what would become hundreds of millions of dollars on dinner. It’s the ultimate “if only I’d held” story, and it’s why the pizza still comes up every time Bitcoin makes headlines.
The participation version
Someone had to be first to use Bitcoin as money. Without trades like this one, the coins might never have become worth anything at all. Spending them was part of how they gained value.
Neither version tells you what to do with Bitcoin today. What the story does show clearly is how early prices can look meaningless, and how a fixed number of coins can be worth wildly different amounts depending on when you look.
05The number that matters is yours
The pizza story is about 10,000 coins. Most people own a tiny fraction of one coin, or none. The more useful question is what your own amount would need for it to matter to you.
What Bitcoin price would make your stack worth $1 million?
Quick answers
When is Bitcoin Pizza Day?
May 22 every year. It marks the day in 2010 when Laszlo Hanyecz received two pizzas in exchange for 10,000 BTC.
How much was each Bitcoin worth in the pizza trade?
About $0.004. The 10,000 BTC were worth roughly $41 in total, so each pizza cost 5,000 BTC.
Who received the 10,000 BTC?
Jeremy Sturdivant, a 19-year-old forum user known as “jercos.” He ordered the pizzas from Papa John’s and later spent the coins.