🍕 How a Pizza Delivery Kicked Off the Crypto Economy
📜 Prelude: A Network With No Price Tag
In early 2010, Bitcoin was still an experiment—created just a year earlier by the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto. It had no practical use outside the forums. Miners collected it for fun. Early adopters swapped it like trading cards. The market value? Undefined.
That is, until one hungry Floridian made a strange request.
📣 The Post That Changed Everything
On May 18, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, a software developer and miner in Florida, posted this offer on Bitcointalk.org:
“I’ll pay 10,000 BTC for a couple of pizzas… maybe two large ones so I have some left over for the next day.”
He wasn't joking. He listed preferred toppings—onions, peppers, sausage—and said the pizza could be homemade, store-bought, or from anywhere, as long as it arrived hot to his home in Jacksonville.
At that point, 10,000 BTC was worth about $41, according to some niche exchange metrics. But no one had actually exchanged it for real food.
🚀 Enter: A 19-Year-Old Risk Taker
Four days passed. Then on May 22, 2010, Jeremy Sturdivant—aka “Jercos,” a 19-year-old from California—took the leap. He read Laszlo’s post, picked up the phone, and placed an order with a local Papa John's near Laszlo’s address. Two large pizzas with all the right toppings. Jeremy paid with his debit card and had them delivered.
Laszlo, true to his word, sent Jeremy 10,000 BTC.
At the time, neither of them thought they were making history. Just two guys on opposite coasts, sharing a digital handshake over a pizza run.
📷 Proof of Pizza
Laszlo posted a photo to Bitcointalk of his two kids smiling beside the now-iconic delivery boxes. It was the first time Bitcoin had bought something physical.
Suddenly, Bitcoin had real-world utility. This was the moment it crossed from niche code to economic reality.
💸 What Happened to the BTC?
Jeremy didn’t hold the 10,000 BTC. He spent it over the next few months on travel and living expenses. He told The Telegraph years later:
“The Bitcoin was worth a decent amount at the time—I wasn’t going to just sit on it.”
In hindsight? That pizza would one day cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But Jeremy has no regrets.
“You can’t go back and change the past. I’m proud to have participated in something that became historic.”
🕯️ Legacy: Bitcoin Pizza Day
Today, May 22 is celebrated worldwide as Bitcoin Pizza Day—a tongue-in-cheek but deeply symbolic reminder of how far crypto has come.
In 2010, it was 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC.In 2025, it’s an annual celebration of crypto’s roots.That transaction established Bitcoin’s first real price: $0.0041 per BTC.
And Jeremy? He became part of blockchain folklore. Not for what he kept—but for what he started.
🔁 Reflection
Bitcoin didn't begin with a whitepaper.
It began with a craving. A transaction.
Two people, two pizzas, and a question that echoed through time:
“Can we really use this?”
Turns out, we could.
The blockchain never forgets. Neither does history.
Token Era: Bitcoin (BTC)
Date: May 22, 2010
Cashtag:
$BTC #Write2Earn #BitcoinPizzaDay #CryptoFoundMe #BTCOrigins #RealCryptoStories