Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day to the crypto world! Today marks 13 years since the first Bitcoin transaction on May 22, 2010, when 10,000 BTC was paid for two pizzas. Here’s the riveting tale of the first Bitcoin transaction.
Hooray for Bitcoin Pizza Day!
This annual celebration began with one person, Laszlo Hanyecz, who paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas on May 22, 2010. Over time, as the value of Bitcoin skyrocketed, the story of the first Bitcoin transaction gained popularity, and so, every May 22 is now celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day.
Today, the value of those two pizzas is approximately $269 million, and when Bitcoin hit its all-time high of about $69,000 on November 10, 2021, the value of the pizzas reached $690 million.
But how did Bitcoin Pizza Day originate?
The story began with Hanyecz posting a topic titled “Pizza for Bitcoins?” on the popular Bitcoin forum, Bitcointalk, on May 18, 2010. He expressed his willingness to pay 10,000 BTC for a couple of pizzas, specifying that he’d like them to be large. His message ended with a call for anyone interested to get in touch and negotiate the deal.
A forum user responded to Laszlo’s thread, expressing interest in ordering from Domino’s if they could figure out how to make a payment from Europe. Laszlo replied, stating that many places accept online orders and he and his wife sometimes use Papa John’s, all of which accept credit card payments. However, the conversation didn’t progress further.
After failing to receive any serious offers, Laszlo asked, “Isn’t anyone going to buy me a pizza? Did you find the amount of BTC I offered too little?” A forum user replied, asking if he was hungry or just loved pizza, to which Laszlo responded, “I think it would be interesting to say that I bought a pizza by paying with Bitcoin.” This clearly indicated his desire to make such a trade merely to claim that he had “bought a pizza with Bitcoin.”
Eventually, a user named Jercos, real name Jeremy Sturdivant, got in touch with Laszlo, the keen and fun-loving programmer. The transaction for the two pizzas was then carried out using Bitcoin.
After the transaction was made as desired, Laszlo updated his Bitcointalk thread, stating, “Just wanted to report that I successfully swapped 10,000 BTC for pizza.” In his next post, he indicated that he was open to more offers and could give more BTC if someone would order a large pizza as he continued Bitcoin mining.
