Bitcoin Pizza Day: The 10,000 BTC Pizza Story (May 22, 2010)

Bitcoin Pizza Day is 22 May, the anniversary of the first known purchase of a physical good with bitcoin. On 22 May 2010, Florida programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC to Jeremy Sturdivant, a forum member known as jercos, who had two pizzas delivered to Hanyecz’s home. At the time the coins were worth about $41.

Bitcoin Pizza Day at a Glance

The 2010 figures come from the original Bitcointalk thread: on 18 May 2010 a forum member noted that the 10,000 BTC could be sold on bitcoinmarket.com for about $41, and Hanyecz later put the cost of the two pizzas at about $25, or $30 with a tip. The October 2026 figure uses the bitcoin price shown by mempool.space on 18 October 2026.

How Did the First Bitcoin Purchase Happen?

Before the pizza deal, Bitcoin existed only as software and cryptographic proof. The network came online in January 2009 as a ledger kept by volunteers (the history of Bitcoin covers those first years), and its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was still active on the forum. Coins were mined on home computers, sent between test wallets and used to try out the protocol. Transactions confirmed and balances moved, but nobody had yet used the currency to obtain anything you could touch or eat.

Hanyecz set out to change that. Instead of sending coins back and forth inside the community, he wanted to see whether bitcoin could pay for something ordinary and universally understood: dinner. On the Bitcointalk forum he offered 10,000 bitcoins to anyone who would arrange a pizza delivery to his home.

Sturdivant took up the offer. He ordered two pizzas with his own money and had them delivered to Hanyecz, who then sent 10,000 BTC to Sturdivant’s wallet. On 22 May 2010 Hanyecz reported on the forum that he had successfully traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza, completing what is now considered the first documented purchase of a physical good with bitcoin.

The meal was modest, but the step mattered: for the first time, bitcoins left their closed circle and paid for a real product, with two people trading voluntarily and without any intermediary. Neither of them saw it as momentous at the time. Hanyecz later described it as a fun way to try something new.

Can You See the Transaction on the Blockchain?

The payment is still there for anyone to inspect. Transaction a1075db5…d48d was confirmed in block 57,043 on 22 May 2010. It combines 131 inputs worth 10,000.99 BTC into a single output of exactly 10,000 BTC and leaves 0.99 BTC as the fee. Bitcoin spends whole outputs instead of adjusting account balances (how Bitcoin works explains the model), so Hanyecz’s wallet had to gather 131 smaller outputs to reach the amount. The receiving address starts with 1, the legacy format that was the only address type in use at the time (Bitcoin address types).

How Did Bitcoin Pizza Day Start?

As the price of bitcoin rose, the story took on symbolic weight, and the community began marking 22 May as Bitcoin Pizza Day. The Bitcoin Wiki records the name and notes that pizza sellers offer discounts to bitcoin users for the occasion. Exchanges, meetups and crypto media mark the date every year with posts, promotions and pizza.

For newcomers, the day is a memorable entry point into Bitcoin’s origins. For long-time users, it is a reminder that meaningful innovation often grows from small experiments.

What Happened to the 10,000 BTC?

Sturdivant later spent the coins on travel. Both men have said the trade was never about future value but about testing whether the system worked. With hindsight, though, the pizzas became the most famous meal in crypto: the same 10,000 BTC would have been worth about $810 million in October 2026. How bitcoin went from fractions of a cent to tens of thousands of dollars is the subject of what makes Bitcoin’s price go up.

Why Does the Pizza Purchase Still Matter?

The purchase proved that Bitcoin could work as a means of payment without banks or other intermediaries, and that realization encouraged merchants and users to try it in everyday trade. It also shows how perceptions shift over time: early contributors saw Bitcoin as a technical hobby, while later observers recognized its global financial potential.

• Bitcoin paid for ordinary, real-world goods
• Value moved directly between two individuals without intermediaries
• Early participants shaped the outcome before BTC had a recognized value
• Practical use validated the system more effectively than theory

The pizza exchange has since become a reference point in documentaries, lectures and discussions worldwide. Its significance lies not in the number of coins spent but in what it demonstrated: a decentralized network could support real economic activity, and a small experiment could start long-term change.