14 years ago, a man named Laszlo Hanyecz offered to take 2 pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoin. Later, the value of the above amount of Bitcoin was equivalent to 700 million USD.
The value of the amount of Bitcoin that Laszlo Hanyecz spent on two pizzas has increased to 700 million USD. Photo: The Sun.
On May 22, 2010, a man named Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoin to buy 2 pizzas, marking the first commercial transaction made with cryptocurrency. Since then, this day has been remembered every year by the cryptocurrency investment community as "Bitcoin Pizza Day".
14 years ago, Laszlo Hanyecz - a programmer from Florida (USA), then 28 years old - posted a post on the BitcoinTalk forum with an offer to buy some pizza for 10,000 Bitcoin.
“I'll pay 10,000 Bitcoin for a few pizzas, maybe 2 large ones to last the next day. You can make it yourself and bring it to my house or order it from a store,” Hanyecz wrote.
In response to this request, Jeremy Sturdivant, a student in California, quickly accepted and brought Hanyecz 2 large pizzas from Papa Johns store.
At that time, 10,000 Bitcoin only cost about 41 USD. However, after 14 years, the amount of Bitcoin that Laszlo Hanyecz spent to buy 2 pizzas was worth up to 700 million USD.
Sharing with Cryptopolitan, Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, said Bitcoin Pizza Day was a turning point in the development of Bitcoin.
“Hanyecz's pizza purchase proved that Bitcoin can be used to purchase real goods and services, validating the idea of decentralized digital currency,” she said.
Years later, the man who wasted the equivalent of $700 million on two pizzas shows no remorse.
In fact, he enjoys the fact that this story has become a “myth” in the cryptocurrency world.
“You know I don't regret it. I think I like being part of the early history of Bitcoin in that way,” Hanyecz shared in an interview in 2020.
Meanwhile, Sturdivant could not avoid scandal when he used all his Bitcoin to travel. He said he held 40,000 Bitcoin very early through mining and trading activities.