What is Bitcoin Pizza Day?
May 22, 2025, marks the 15th anniversary of a now legendary first purchase made with Bitcoin: on that day in 2010, early Bitcoin developer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC to buy two pizzas. What happened to Hanyecz and Jeremy Sturdivant, who received these bitcoins, and what is the deep meaning behind the first Pizza Day?
Laszlo Hanyecz is an early Bitcoin adopter, developer, and miner from Florida. He is one of the pioneers of GPU mining. On May 18, 2010, he published an unusual post on BitcoinTalk, a Bitcoin forum created by Satoshi Nakamoto. In the post, Hanyecz was urging anyone to send him two large pizzas in exchange for 10,000 bitcoins.
He mentioned that he likes onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, pepperoni, and regular cheese pizzas. He asked not to make things like “weird fish topping,” etc. “If you are interested please let me know and we can work out a deal,” he concluded.
On May 22, Hanyecz stated that he successfully bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC and posted a link to a photo of two large pizzas and Laszlo with his kids. He added that he is always happy to receive two large pizzas, so his offer is open as long as he has funds. “I usually have plenty,” he said–in 2010, the block reward was 50 BTC. The person who bought Hanyecz pizzas in return for his bitcoins was identified as Jeromy Sturdivant, a Californian student who was 19 years old at that time.
As of May 22, 2025, several hours after the Bitcoin price reached another all-time high, 10,000 BTC equals $1.1 billion.
What do Hanyecz and Sturdivant think of their trade years later?
Sturdivant, who received 10,000 BTC, gave a number of interviews. He said he realized that he was setting a historical precedent while admitting that if he didn’t do that, someone else would eventually buy pizza for Hanyecz.
I feel my part wasn’t critical or irreplaceable, but it was an important step to be taken, and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to take it myself. Beyond that, I’m just as excited to take part in the future and don’t have any intention of pining away for the “glory days.”
As for Hanyecz, he said he didn’t perceive spending 10,000 BTC for pizza as an expensive flex. It was the opposite; it was a rare fortune to get rewarded with free food for his hobby of being a network contributor. Usually, hobbies are money sinks, Hanyecz said.
“It wasn’t worth much at the time. I wouldn’t have spent $100 million on pizza, right? But if I hadn’t done that, maybe Bitcoin wouldn’t have become so popular.”
15 years later, the community is still celebrating on social media
People remember Bitcoin Pizza Day. Educational posts appear here and there. This time, the Bitcoin Pizza Anniversary nicely coincided with another historic achievement–the Bitcoin price exceeded $111,500 for the first time.
If we take a look at the comments to such posts, we will see that the regret narrative (“guy spent millions on pizza, poor he”) that was strong for years has been changed with a legend narrative (“the man is a legend”). People are increasingly supportive of a person who literally made Bitcoin valuable in the real-world economy. They don’t mock him or laugh at him anymore. However, the name of Sturdivant is still less prominent than the name of Hanyecz.
What’s the meaning of Bitcoin Pizza Day?
That is an important point. While Michael Saylor and others may argue that Bitcoin is not fit for being a means of exchange but rather serves as a capital that should not be spent or sold, the initial purpose of Bitcoin was serving as a money network that doesn’t have the flaws of the banking system. Bitcoin is a trustless peer-to-peer payment system, and Hanyecz was the first to try buying something with bitcoins and succeeded, thanks to Sturdivant.
Before Bitcoin Pizza Day, Bitcoin was living only within the code lines. On May 22, it was born into a physical world, making its first tiny impact on the real-life economy (electricity bills of miners aside).
Hanyecz probably missed some long-term returns, but he hit the gas of the Bitcoin vehicle, making use of it while others were sitting still after switching the ignition. He believed that Bitcoin could actually work as money and set the precedent that, 15 years later, still makes Bitcoin valuable.