On May 22, 2010, two pizza pies were bought by a person named Laszlo Hanyecz through a bitcoin forum. While the pies themselves were mundane, the transaction was revolutionary—they were bought with 10,000 bitcoins, worth roughly $41 at the time. Now that one purchase gages the health of the entire $258 billion cryptocurrency market.
Even the some of the biggest cryptocurrency nuts probably couldn’t tell you if the bitcoin whitepaper came out in 2008 or 2009 (it was January 3, 2009). But while even fewer can tell you the day that Ethereum launched (July 30, 2015),many in blockchain can list May 22 as blockchain’s pretty much only holiday. Bitcoin Pizza Day marks the first verified use of cryptocurrency to facilitate an offline transaction.
Through the magic of a public ledger, we can see that transaction truly went down a little after 6:15 p.m. on Saturday, May 22, 2010. A student named Jeremy Sturdivant contacted Hanyecz on Internet Relay Chat and soon he had two Papa Johns pizzas at his home in Florida.
At Modern Consensus, we spend a lot of time in our decentralized break room talking about the future of blockchain technology and crypto prices. And even we don’t know what the future holds. But as of lunchtime here in New York those 10,000 bitcoins were worth $82,306,400—an all-time high for a Bitcoin Pizza Day. (Even so, our boss is lactose intolerant, so we will have to enjoy this day at our decentralized desks).
On Bitcoin Pizza Day in 2011, 10,000 bitcoin cost $81,400. By 2012 that went down to $51,200, but then shot up to $1,276,600 in 2013. It then spiked to $5,085,900 in 2014 before tumbling down to $2,364,400 in 2015 and $4,732,000 in 2016. Last Bitcoin Pizza Day, it went for $20,509,958.
The #Bitcoin pizza is worth $20,509,958 today. (-0.15% from yesterday) Today is Bitcoin pizza day!
— Bitcoin Pizza 🍕 (@bitcoin_pizza) May 22, 2017
You can follow along with the price on Twitter with the deadpan hilarious Bitcoin_Pizza bot. Modern Consensus spoke with the bot’s designer Merijn Bellekom. The programmer told us, “People seemed to like it a lot, with the bot gaining a lot of new followers when the bitcoin price hit certain milestones, like $5,000, $10,000 etc. A fair amount of people RT, reply, and quote it too, adding messages of their own.” However, Bellekom is not a bitcoin speculator. “I haven’t invested in bitcoin (and will not), but it’s a lot of fun to watch.”
So cheers to all of our friends around the world who are carbo-loading at lunch today:
Our friends at Litecoin had a good time this afternoon:
8 years ago today, Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for 2 pizzas.🍕 Today, you can throw an office pizza party for 10,000 bits. ($80) That's over 1,000,000x increase in 8 years! Thanks Laszlo for your sacrifice, which helped kickstart Bitcoin adoption worldwide. 👏 #BitcoinPizzaDay pic.twitter.com/vTHZon3KX4
— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) May 22, 2018
Same at digital asset exchange Huobi Pro.
Across #HUOBI offices in the 🌏, we celebrate with bitcoiners the anniversary of the MOST expensive pizzas in history 🍕
2 Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 BTC on 22nd May 2010.
Watch what's #BitcoinPizzaDay at https://t.co/hvCleQJOTD#BTCPizzaDay #BitcoinPizza #Bitcoin #BTC pic.twitter.com/QPcTYdPoY6
— HuobiGlobal (@HuobiGlobal) May 22, 2018
Nice to see Changelly doing something with their extra large fees.
Perfect day for pizza binge, huh? Changelly team wishes you happy #BitcoinPizzaDay! 🍕 pic.twitter.com/9cTXnCxoHN
— Changelly.com (@Changelly_team) May 22, 2018
Happy #BitcoinPizzaDay! 🍕
Fun Fact:
8 years ago today (May 22). Laszlo Hanyecz agreed to pay 10,000 $BTC for a pizza..
Today's value: $83,404,400 USDhttps://t.co/TlrSoTzAPe
— Crypto Godfather (@CryptoGodfatha) May 22, 2018
Bitcoin investor and Instagrammer MrBrdo gets it:
On this blessed #BitcoinPizzaDay, let us remember the real hero of the story, jercos, who boldly demanded bitcoins in exchange for pizzas. He is a major source of inspiration for Bitcoin carnivore hodlers everywhere. Get rid of bread, acquire bitcoins.
Thanks jercos! pic.twitter.com/O7MwkjZdR8
— Michael Goldstein (@bitstein) May 22, 2018
Some take it wicked seriously:
Happy #BitcoinPizzaDay! pic.twitter.com/WUfiyFnK6b
— Mark Bern (@markbernart) May 22, 2018
The fellas over at Crypto IQ are having a nice lunch:
Happy #BitcoinPizzaDay! On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz ordered two pizzas for 10,000 $BTC (41 $USD) from @PapaJohns. #Papajohns isn't embracing it's place in #crypto history, but @CharlieShrem thought we should honor tradition! #Bitcoin #RaiseyourCryptoIQ https://t.co/IK12jaaBet pic.twitter.com/ca0dxMUNp6
— Crypto.IQ (@_CryptoIQ) May 22, 2018
It’s not just boys fun:
Any excuse for food. Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day! @eToro #BitcoinPizzaDay pic.twitter.com/0vbpDVEhTG
— Amy Butler (@ButlerAmy) May 22, 2018
And, like everything on the blockchain, this is truly a global phenomenon without borders. As shown by the events Bitcoin Slovenia dug up:
#BitcoinPizzaDay has become an event that is celebrated globally. This years 8th anniversary events can be seen on the attached images. Source: facebook events. Keyword: Bitcoin pizza day pic.twitter.com/XTthMgrZrY
— Bitcoin Slovenia (@BitcoinSlovenia) May 21, 2018
But maybe Bitstamp put it best:
PIZZA TO THE MOON: In 2010, a Florida man bought two large pizzas for 10.000 #Bitcoin. Today, this could buy you enough pizzas to get to the International Space Station five times. #whenmoon Happy #BitcoinPizzaDay! #BTC #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/OuPeXC93CM
— Bitstamp (@Bitstamp) May 22, 2018
So wherever you are, we hope you’re having a great pizza party feeling.
*”Pizza Party” Music video directed by Modern Consensus’ own Brendan Jay Sullivan