It's hard to believe, but there was once a time when Bitcoin was a lesser-known commodity than it is today. The coin was relatively unheard of to the general population in its early years, but one event helped boost its popularity and send it on the upward path it took, leading it to the heights of today. What was that event, you may ask? Well, it involved a man named Laszlo Hanyecz who pioneered GPU mining in Bitcoin’s early days and is best known for making the first ever Bitcoin transaction, buying two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 BTC on May 22nd, 2010, now celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day. At the time, Bitcoin was worth around $0.0041, and despite the cost of the pizzas being approximately $25, he was willing to pay $41 just for the transaction's sake. Had he held onto that Bitcoin, it would be worth around $900 million today, making those pizzas the most expensive ever bought.
The original post Laszlo made on the Bitcointalk forum in 2010
The Early Years of Laszlo Hanyecz
Truth be told, there isn't a lot known about Laszlo’s private life and early years, we do know that he is a Hungarian-American computer programmer who now resides in Florida with his two kids and partner, and that he was born on the 16th of October 1990 in Jacksonville, Florida, to two middle-class Hungarian parents, he also has a degree in Information Technology. Laszlo first began mining Bitcoin all the way back in 2009, a year before his now-famous trade, and he was also known for making early changes to Bitcoin's source code and being a very active member of the community in the early years. He was the man who spearheaded the original process to avoid 51% attacks on Bitcoin, and so in his own right, he truly was/is a brilliant web tech. He was also the first Bitcoin developer to release the code for Mac OS, a fact that is often overshadowed by his pizza endeavours. Any interviews he has done since the events of the Bitcoin Pizza event have largely just covered his involvement in the early years of Bitcoin. The most recent mainstream media interview with Laszlo came when he appeared on 60 Minutes in 2019, but Laszlo again just recalled the events of 2010 and his involvement with the Bitcoin pizza event and his early years in the Bitcoin community. It makes a lot of sense when you consider that Laszlo was such an early adopter of Bitcoin and was so heavily invested in the community/message behind Bitcoin, that he is a very private person. He is someone who values privacy, which I, as a PlasBit writer, can respect, since it is also a core message of ours.
Laszlo, during an interview with 60 Minutes in 2019
Does Laszlo Hanyecz still have Bitcoin?
Having learned about the man behind the famous trade, the next logical question to ask is, Does Laszlo Hanyecz still have Bitcoin? Well, there are two Bitcoin addresses connected to him, one holds 0.00025081 Bitcoin ($21), and the second holds 0.00474484 Bitcoin ($400). This is based on his Bitcointalk posts and profile. Both seem inactive, with the last activity by him dating to 2018. He stepped away from the Bitcoin community shortly after the famous pizza purchase, never publicly discussing his Bitcoin holdings. Not much is known about why Laszlo Hanyecz stepped away from the Bitcoin community after the famous pizza incident, though it's possible to speculate that Laszlo moved on after the event because his priorities changed in life. The early Bitcoin community was largely a group of tech-savvy nerds and libertarians who were interested in the technological and moral aspects of Bitcoin, it had no real uses as its concept was mostly unknown to people not involved in these communities, and this transaction marked the first ever purchase made with bitcoin, even if not directly. This helped show the community that there is a real-life value to Bitcoin, and was the first of many purchases made with Bitcoin, and so it's possible Laszlo just felt his role within the community was finished and he had shown others the power of Bitcoin.
How Bitcoin Has Been Traded Through the Years
Another interesting thing to note about the early transactions of Bitcoin, like this one, is that there was no set value for Bitcoin at the time. It's not like today, where we have crypto exchanges always available for people to trade their Bitcoin for real-world currency or vice versa. In 2011, Bitcoin was traded solely through the crypto forums, so Laszlo had to wait to find someone in the forum who was willing to take him up on his offer and spend the extra time to figure out the logistics of ordering him the pizza and organising the delivery time, etc. Today, you have 100’s of Crypto exchanges available to you on the App Store or with one quick Google search, but at the time of this trade, you had to do all of the work in sourcing someone to trade yourself or your Bitcoin was essentially worthless. The two pizzas came out to about $25 in value, and Laszlo could have traded his 10,000 Bitcoin for around $41 (after doing all the work to find a trade partner on the forums), making each Bitcoin worth around $0.0041, Still, he was even seen asking in the forum if others felt it was enough of an offer because he was having a hard time finding someone willing to take him up on the trade, likely because of the niche nature of the request and as we discussed above, the fact that Bitcoin was not a common item to trade with at the time, so there was a lack of potential trade partners. And yes, Laszlo, if you are reading this and want to offer me 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 large pizzas today, I'm available and I will throw in a side of garlic breadsticks for free.
The trade itself took place on May 22nd 2010. The Bitcointalk user who took Laszlo Hanyecz up on the offer went by Jercos, whose real-life name is Jeremy Sturdivant, a Bitcointalk user who contacted Laszlo through chat after his post to set up the trade. Laszlo sent the 10,000 Bitcoin, and the two pizzas, one Margherita and one special, arrived at his house shortly after, cementing the moment in history for all of time. The current day value of those 10,000 Bitcoins is about $900 million, so quite an expensive dinner for Laszlo and his family that night. Those in the Bitcoin community now fondly refer to May 22nd as Bitcoin Pizza Day, a yearly event to celebrate the historic moment in Bitcoin history, so if you think about it, Laszlo did get a lot more than just two pizzas for his Bitcoin, now thats got to be worth the $900 million, right?
Who is the Man Who Received 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas?
Much like me, you're probably now left pulling your hair out at the very thought of being on the wrong end of this trade and missing out on a life-changing sum of money, even if your name goes down in Bitcoin history for all of eternity and they name a yearly holiday after you. Much like me, it probably also leaves you wondering to yourself, so who is the man who got the 10,000 Bitcoin for pizza? Jeremy Sturdivant, known as jercos, was the one who got 10,000 Bitcoin for buying Laszlo Hanyecz two pizzas on May 22, 2010. To this day, this is one of the largest trades in Bitcoin history. He held onto the Bitcoin for a few years before using it to travel to the southern U.S. with his girlfriend at the time and to buy games. While he admitted to some regrets about not holding onto it longer, since these 10,000 Bitcoins are now worth about $900 million, he said he’s glad to have been part of Bitcoin history.
The Bitcointalk Forum Users’ Early Reaction to the Trade
The Bitcointalk forum where the trade took place is still active, and you can still visit and read over the original post and all of the replies that Laszlo got to his post. At the time of the post, some users even questioned Laszlo for his desire to make this trade, considering that he overpaid for the Pizzas, as mentioned before. The forum is still an interesting read to this day, as it gives a real sense of the Bitcoin community at the time. It's easy for us to fall into the thought pattern that Bitcoin is this household name, when parents and even grandparents have heard of it, but we have to remember that at the time, it was a completely unheard-of commodity to the general public.
The reply from user Ender_x to Laszlo’s original post in 2010
Laszlo was convinced to make the trade, even when questioned early on by other users. On top of some questioning his desire to make the trade when he could have sold the Bitcoin for more, others wondered how it could even be done, considering he was in a state or country that most of the other users would struggle to order food to. Funnily enough, Jeremy Sturdivant, or Jercos as we now know him, was a UK-based user, so if we were looking for records to break during this article, somebody may want to check if Jeremy has the record for the most geographically ambitious pizza delivery ever, also. Congrats Jeremy, you could have had 10,000 Bitcoin and a world record, but he famously decided to cash in all of his Bitcoin a year later and use his earnings to holiday in North America instead. I hope that view of the Grand Canyon was worth it! Even after Jeremy helped Laszlo Hanyecz with the trade, Jeremy kept updating the forum with his success, saying, “I just want to report that I traded 10,000 Bitcoin for pizza” and including multiple pictures of his daughter and the pizzas in his post.
The image that Laszlo attached to his confirmation post of his daughter with the pizza
It's quite admirable to think about, because even as the next year or so went on, Laszlo continued to return to the post. As the price of Bitcoin rose in value, he stuck by his commitment to the trade and never once backtracked or professed his desire to have kept the Bitcoin instead, whether on the original forum or in real-world interviews. He kept offering the trade for 3 more months, in fact, until August 4th 2010, when he said on the forums that he could no longer offer the trade, since he couldn't mine thousands of Bitcoin a day anymore. Users commented on the post as Bitcoin reached several different milestones, with people saying “$600 is a great deal for pizza, I thought” and “will this eventually become the world's first million-dollar pizza?”, hint, hint, it became a lot more than that. By April 24th 2011, the 10,000 Bitcoin had reached a real-world value of over $18,000, and the post had now achieved a much higher level of infamy, with one user dubbing it “the $18,000 pizza”. I think all in all, the post is a really interesting window into the climate around Bitcoin at the time and the early adopters of the coin.
The Bitcoin Pizza Man and his Trade Reimagined
Now that we know a bit more about this infamous event in Bitcoin history and the two men who were involved, let's take a look back at the key events and make a timeline to understand how quickly this event became infamous and the direction that Bitcoin took after this trade happened. Firstly, let's remember the real name of the Bitcoin Pizza Man is Laszlo Hanyecz. He was the first ever person to purchase anything using Bitcoin. On May 22nd 2010, he paid 10,000 Bitcoin to bitcointalk.com forum user jercos in exchange for Jercos buying him 2 Papa John's pizzas and having them delivered to his house. In the spirit of Laszlo Hanyecz, we here at PlasBit want to show our solidarity to the man who helped Bitcoin gain early popularity, so we are going to have a look through time and see how many pizzas you can buy with Bitcoin, at any one time. Firstly, let's establish some rules for our Bitcoin to pizza conversion chart.
The Bitcoin to Pizza Conversion Through the Years
Let's assume, from the beginning of this experiment, that two large Papa John's pizzas are around $25 US Dollars. We know that Laszlo overpaid for his pizzas at the time, and he could have asked for around 3 large pizzas instead. That means, at the time Laszlo was doing his trades, between May and July of 2010, 10,000 Bitcoin would have gotten you roughly 3 large Papa John's Pizzas, give or take a small amount. Considering Laszlo was mining these coins himself at home, not a bad trade for someone for that delicious pizza goodness, though I am more of a Domino's kind of guy myself. Here is a table that details how many pizzas he could buy with 10,000 BTC, as years came by and bitcoin’s value rose, the price is for January of the same year.
| Year | Bitcoin’s price in USD | The Price of 10,000 Bitcoin | How Many $12.50 Large Papa John's Pizzas will Laszlo’s 10,000 Bitcoin buy? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | $1.8 | $18,000 | 1,440 |
| 2012 | $4.72 | $47,200 | 3,776 |
| 2013 | $135 | $135,000 | 10,800 |
| 2014 | $767 | $7,677,400 | 614,192 |
| 2015 | $313 | $3,130,000 | 250,400 |
| 2016 | $434 | $4,340,000 | 347,200 |
| 2017 | $998 | $9,980,000 | 798,400 |
| 2018 | $14,093 | $140,930,000 | 11,274,400 |
| 2019 | $3,692 | $36,920,000 | 2,953,600 |
| 2020 | $7,195 | $71,950,000 | 5,756,000 |
| 2021 | $29,022 | $290,220,000 | 23,217,600 |
| 2022 | $46,319 | $463,190,000 | 37,055,200 |
| 2023 | $16,540 | $165,400,000 | 13,232,000 |
| 2024 | $43,835 | $438,350,000 | 35,068,000 |
| 2025 | $94,443.52 | $944,435,200 | 75,544,816 |
It's incredible to think that in just fourteen years, Laszlo went from trading his 10,000 Bitcoin in for 2 large Papa John's pizzas, to that same 10,000 Bitcoin now being worth over 75 million large Papa John's pizzas. I do believe this is a good representation of the power of people. Without the backing of the public, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies would never have become as powerful as they are today. It shows you what people can accomplish when they unite behind an idea. Laszlo and others invested in Bitcoin early on because of the message behind it, and that message has incredibly helped the coin rise from $1.80 in value in 2011 to over $94,000 at the beginning of 2025. It can sometimes feel like the world is divided now, but we should always remember that we, the people, are truly the ones with power.
Conclusion
Now that we have all seen the powerful effects of counter-inflationary measures first hand through the representation of our yearly Bitcoin to pizza conversion chart, we can have our final say on Laszlo Hanyecz's famous 10,000 Bitcoin pizza trade. Personally, I think Laszlo has the right idea on life and looking back now at what could have been, he just accepts and embraces what happened with his trades and does not dwell on what could have been. Every venture in life, especially the grandest ones, requires pioneers to help steer the ship, and to me, that is what Laszlo did. He helped form a community that, in the end, became bigger than himself. In 2024, he was quoted as saying, “To me, the day I was able to buy food with Bitcoin, it made it real to me” and I believe that's the message we should all be taking from Laszlo's story. If we all had perfect hindsight, we would never make any mistakes, but mistakes are what help us to grow in life. Through Laszlos insistence to trade with the coin early on, he showed people the power of Bitcoin and its potential and in all honesty, you could make a genuine argument that he helped to blast the coin off in the trajectory that it took, both through his trading of it and his early help with the development of the tech around Bitcoin. Laszlo could be rich right now, very, very rich, but if he were, nobody would remember him as the Bitcoin pizza guy. Legends are written in stone, and Laszlo has a legend that money can never buy. In my view, that's worth every last one of those 10,000 Bitcoins.
