Bitcoin and pizza: what an unlikely combination. But, somehow, these two things have an entire day dedicated to them. It’s all in the name of celebrating the innovations that crypto has brought to the world. So save the date, because Bitcoin Pizza Day is around the corner! Below, you’ll learn all about this special day and how you can take part.
What is Bitcoin Pizza Day?
Bitcoin Pizza Day honors the day Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer and bitcoin miner from Florida, bought two pizzas with bitcoin in 2010. It takes place annually on May 22nd, which is the anniversary of the first commercial bitcoin transaction.
How much was 10,000 bitcoin worth back then and today?
Hanyecz used 10,000 bitcoin to make his famed pizza purchase. At the time, this quantity was worth about $41. Over the years, the cryptocurrency’s value has grown exponentially. Today, 10,000 bitcoin are worth more than $300 million as of May 16, 2022. (You could buy more than 7 million large pizzas with that money!)
Current bitcoin price
How did Laszlo Hanyecz order pizza with bitcoin?
On May 18, 2010, Hanyecz posted on the Bitcoin Forum asking if anyone was willing to deliver two large pizzas to him. “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 wrote.
Whoever delivered the pizza would give Hanyecz the address to their crypto wallet. Then, Hanyecz would send the 10,000 digital coins from his wallet to theirs. “I just think it would be interesting if I could say that I paid for a pizza in bitcoins,” Hanyecz wrote in a later reply to his original post.
A few days later, on May 22, Hanyecz made a post thanking Jeremy Sturdivant (who went by the username “jercos”) for ordering him pizza. Sturdivant had ordered and delivered two Papa John’s pizzas.
In 2018, Hanyecz wanted to use bitcoin again to pay for a pizza craving. This time, he used the lightning network, an application that runs on top of the bitcoin blockchain, to buy two pies. He used around 0.00649 bitcoin to pay for the pizzas and delivery, which totaled about $62.
What did Jeremy Sturdivant do with the 10,000 bitcoin?
Instead of saving his bitcoin and treating the cryptocurrency as an investment, Sturdivant figured his earned coins were meant to be spent. He used them to help fund a road trip with his girlfriend. If he’d held his coins until November 2021, when bitcoin’s price reached almost $69,000, Sturdivant would have had $690 million in his crypto wallet.
5 facts, trends, and events that show how far crypto has come
In the years since the first bitcoin transactions, cryptocurrency has grown tremendously. In fact, bitcoin now stands over more than 18,000 other cryptocurrencies as the world’s most popular digital asset. Below are a few other facts that illustrate the rise and acceptance of cryptocurrencies around the world.
- Crypto involvement has dramatically increased in the last decade amongst individuals and companies. Crypto’s popularity has significantly increased since Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin in 2009. According to a 2021 survey from Pew Research Center, 16 percent of Americans have invested in, traded, or owned at least one cryptocurrency. A growing number of companies are also using blockchains to securely execute transactions.
- Bitcoin surpassed $1 trillion in market value. Bitcoin’s market capitalization (the total value of all bitcoin in circulation) reached $1 billion in late 2013. Then, in February 2021, bitcoin’s market capitalization exceeded $1 trillion. The coin’s value dropped soon after that. But in March of the same year, its market cap once again surpassed $1 trillion. After a few weeks of turbulence, Bitcoin’s market cap currently sits around $600 Billion.
- Countries have adopted bitcoin as legal tender. On September 21, 2021, El Salvador became the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender. There are several other countries that could soon officially adopt it too. Panama, for example, drafted legislation that would make bitcoin an official currency just a day after El Salvador’s announcement. Cuba and Ukraine currently allow their citizens to use cryptocurrencies, so they could soon adopt bitcoin as a country-wide currency.
- Scaling systems advancing crypto’s operations. Crypto’s usability has expanded so much that many blockchains have reached their capacity. However, innovation in the crypto world is ever-increasing. Developers have created at least 10 layer 2 networks that function as secondary blockchains. These solutions alleviate some of the stress on the bitcoin and Ethereum networks. Many layer 2s have their own cryptocurrencies, giving users more options for making transactions and running Dapps.
- More businesses accept crypto for payment. More than 15,000 businesses around the world now accept bitcoin as payment. Movies, clothes, basketball tickets, flight packages, hotel reservations, and video games are just a few things you can buy with crypto. There are even some pizza spots that allow you to buy pies with bitcoin, bringing Bitcoin Pizza Day full circle.
Biting into bitcoin
Bitcoin has grown exponentially since its earliest days. It continues to lead other cryptocurrencies and gain acceptance around the world. Buying and holding bitcoin, though never a guaranteed route to profit, could prove to be a smart decision over the next few years. With Coinme, you can buy, receive, hold, or send bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies in just minutes. Come May 22, you might have a reason to celebrate and indulge in a couple of large pizzas yourself.
