--- title: "Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day, The 16th Anniversary of Laszlo Hanyecz Paying 10,000 BTC For Two Papa John’s Pies" url: https://thecoingazette.com/happy-bitcoin-pizza-day-the-16th-anniversary-of-laszlo-hanyecz-paying-10000-btc-for-two-papa-johns-pies/ date: 2026-05-22 modified: 2026-05-22 author: "Coin Gazette Editorial" description: "Bitcoin Magazine Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day, The 16th Anniversary of Laszlo Hanyecz Paying 10,000 BTC For Two Papa John’s Pies Sixteen years ago today, a Florida programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz..." categories: - "Bitcoin" - "Crypto News" - "News" tags: - "Bitcoin" - "Bitcoin Pizza" - "bitcoin pizza day" - "Laszlo Hanyecz" - "News" - "Pizza" image: https://thecoingazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/happy-bitcoin-pizza-day-the-16th-anniversary-of-laszlo-hanyecz-paying-10000-btc-for-two-papa-johns-pies-1024x576.jpg word_count: 523 --- # Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day, The 16th Anniversary of Laszlo Hanyecz Paying 10,000 BTC For Two Papa John’s Pies [Bitcoin Magazine](https://bitcoinmagazine.com) ![](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Happy-Bitcoin-Pizza-Day-The-16th-Anniversary-of-Laszlo-Hanyecz-Paying-10000-BTC-For-Two-Papa-Johns-Pies.jpg) [Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day, The 16th Anniversary of Laszlo Hanyecz Paying 10,000 BTC For Two Papa John’s Pies](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/happy-bitcoin-pizza-day-16th-anniversary) Sixteen years ago today, a Florida programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two large Papa John’s pizzas. At the time, those coins were worth roughly $41. On this Pizza Day, they are worth $777.87 million — down $328 million from last year’s anniversary price.  [Bitcoin Pizza Day,](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/tags/pizza-day) observed each May 22, marks the first commercial transaction using Bitcoin — the moment a digital currency stopped being a theoretical experiment and became a medium of exchange for real goods. On May 18, 2010, Hanyecz [posted](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0) on the BitcoinTalk forum with a straightforward offer: 10,000 BTC to anyone willing to order him two pizzas. Some forum users were skeptical — one pointed out he could sell the coins for $41 in cash.  Hanyecz’s reply was simple: “I just think it would be interesting if I could say that I paid for a pizza in Bitcoins”. Four days later, a then-19-year-old forum user named Jeremy Sturdivant accepted, ordered the pies from Papa John’s, and collected 10,000 BTC via manual transfer. Bitcoin had its first exchange rate against a consumer good. > Everyone talks about the guy who paid 10,000 bitcoin for two pizzas, but no one talks about the guy who received the 10,000 bitcoin. > > Meet Jeremy Sturdivant, the man who got paid 10,000 BTC for selling two pizzas on this day in 2010. > > “I had no idea how huge it would become” ![✨](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2728.png) [pic.twitter.com/0Svz1fkFsU](https://t.co/0Svz1fkFsU) > > — Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) [May 22, 2026](https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/2057830846023737393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) ## The $328 million bitcoin haircut Every May 22, that fixed 10,000 BTC gets revalued at the day’s spot price — the cleanest annual benchmark crypto has. In 2024, the stack was worth $674 million. In 2025, it hit a record $1.106 billion, with Bitcoin trading at $110,568 on that day’s all-time high. Today, with Bitcoin near $77,300, the stack sits at $777.87 million — down 29.7% from last year. The decline began on October 6, 2025, when Bitcoin reached a fresh all-time high of $126,000. Four days later, President Donald Trump [announced](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/bitcoin-price-crashes-to-108000-as-trump-to-impose-100-tariffs-on-china) 100% tariffs on Chinese imports and export controls on critical U.S. software.  Within hours, total crypto market capitalization fell nearly $200 billion in a single session, Bitcoin dropped from $122,000 to $107,000, and approximately $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated — the largest single-day liquidation event in crypto history. ## The worst start since 2018 Q1 2026 became Bitcoin’s third-worst opening quarter on record, closing down 23.2%, with spot Bitcoin ETFs bleeding $4.5 billion in outflows across the first eight weeks of the year. Iran tensions compounded the pressure, as U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on February 28 triggered a sharp risk-off rotation, [trapping Bitcoin](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/bitcoin-swings-wildly-amid-iran-war) between $60,000 and $75,000 for much of March.  Q2 has brought partial recovery — Bitcoin [has climbed roughly](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/bitcoin-price) 14% over the quarter — but the broader crypto market cap sits at $2.65 trillion today, down from $2.9 trillion just one week ago. This post [Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day, The 16th Anniversary of Laszlo Hanyecz Paying 10,000 BTC For Two Papa John’s Pies](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/happy-bitcoin-pizza-day-16th-anniversary) first appeared on [Bitcoin Magazine](https://bitcoinmagazine.com) and is written by [Micah Zimmerman](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/authors/micahzimmerman).