Bitcoin Pizza Day: 22 May 2010, two pizzas and 10,000 BTC

On 22 May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer in Florida, paid for two Papa John's pizzas with 10 000 BTC. The deal went through bitcointalk.org : Laszlo posted his offer, a user in England ordered the pizzas remotely and collected the bitcoins. It was the first attested Bitcoin commercial transaction. At today's price, those two pizzas represent several hundred million dollars.

The anecdote became Pizza Day, celebrated every 22 May in Bitcoin meetups around the world. Beyond the folklore (memes, dizzying retroactive valuation), the event marks two founding facts : Bitcoin did serve to pay for a real good in 2010 (refuting those who reduced it to a computer game), and the community gave itself a pivotal date around which to organise its rituals.

This article retraces the May 2010 context, lays out the precise unfolding of the transaction and the role of jercos (the user in England), provides a 2010-2026 retroactive valuation table of those 10 000 BTC, addresses the cultural legacy (worldwide Pizza Day, murals, kids' books), and explains what this episode says about the Bitcoin / money / perceived value relationship.

The May 2010 context

To understand the 22 May 2010 transaction, you need to picture Bitcoin's state at that moment. The protocol is 16 months old, the Genesis block×Genesis blockThe very first block mined on the Bitcoin chain, on 3 January 2009. Contains a famous message from Satoshi : « The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks ».See in the lexicon → dates from 3 January 2009. The network runs with a few hundred miners, including Satoshi Nakamoto×Satoshi NakamotoPseudonym of the creator (or collective) behind Bitcoin. Active on forums from 2008 to 2011, then vanished without revealing any identity. Holds roughly 1.1 million BTC that have never moved.See in the lexicon → still active on Bitcointalk and the cypherpunks mailing list. There is one serious exchange×ExchangeService that lets you buy, sell and swap cryptocurrencies against fiat money. Examples : Kraken, Coinbase, Bitstamp, Bitvavo. Most are custodial.See in the lexicon → platform, BitcoinMarket.com, launched in March 2010, and a price oscillating between 0.002 and 0.005 USD per bitcoin. No ETF, no custodian, no KYC×KYC (Know Your Customer)Mandatory identification procedure that regulated platforms apply to their users : ID document, proof of address, and so on.See in the lexicon →, no mobile wallet×WalletSoftware or device that manages your Bitcoin keys and lets you sign transactions. A wallet does not really « hold » your bitcoins, it holds the keys that prove you own them.See in the lexicon → exists. The only way to use Bitcoin is to download the original client, let the node×NodeComputer that runs the Bitcoin software and takes part in the network by validating blocks and transactions. A « full node » keeps a complete copy of the blockchain.See in the lexicon → sync, and manage your keys yourself.

The Bitcointalk forum is the centre of gravity. Launched by Satoshi×Satoshi (sat)The smallest unit of bitcoin. 1 BTC = 100 million satoshis. Named after the creator. In 2026, talking in sats becomes common as the price of one BTC rises.See in the lexicon → in November 2009, it gathers a few hundred active users. Discussions revolve around code, mining×MiningProcess of validating blocks through proof of work. Consumes electricity by design : that is what secures the network.See in the lexicon → (still possible on CPU until late 2010), security, and broader questions about what Bitcoin could become. Nobody talks about price in the financial sense. Utility, use cases, potential partners are the topics. Bitcoin is still considered a cryptographic experiment, not a store of value.

On 18 May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, a Hungarian programmer based in Jacksonville Florida, posts a message on the forum, in the Marketplace section. The thread is bluntly titled « Pizza for bitcoins? ». The content is simple : he offers 10,000 BTC to whoever delivers him two pizzas, or organises the order on his behalf. He specifies he likes classic toppings (onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, pepperoni), no weird things. He adds he prefers two large pizzas so he can keep leftovers, which is his point of pride : making acceptable food against bitcoin.

Laszlo's economic context also matters. He mines on his personal machine, and accumulates hundreds of thousands of BTC in a few months. At market price, those BTC are theoretically worth a few dollars each, but in practice nobody accepts bitcoins. Laszlo wants to test whether the currency can be used for something real. His request is therefore not a whim : it is a deliberate experiment, which he documents publicly on the forum.

The transaction mechanics

Laszlo's post stays without answer for three days. He revives it on 21 May, adjusting the offer. On the evening of 22 May, a forum user with the handle jercos (Jeremy Sturdivant, a 19-year-old student living in California) responds. Jercos has no confidence in the mechanism but accepts to test. He calls a Papa John's in Jacksonville from his home in California, orders two pizzas for Laszlo, pays with his personal bank card, and gives Laszlo's address. A few hours later, Laszlo confirms delivery and sends the 10,000 BTC to jercos' Bitcoin address×Bitcoin addressString of characters that identifies a destination for receiving bitcoins. Four main formats, starting with 1..., 3..., bc1q... or bc1p... (Taproot, the recommended format in 2026).See in the lexicon →.

The transaction is recorded on the blockchain×BlockchainA public, shared ledger that records every Bitcoin transaction in blocks linked together cryptographically. Each participant in the network keeps a copy.See in the lexicon → at 22:16:31 UTC on 22 May 2010, in block 57043. The fingerprint of this transaction has remained public and queryable. The exact amount is 10,000.00 BTC, without fees (transaction fees×Transaction feesAmount paid to miners so they include your transaction in a block. Expressed in satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB). Varies with network congestion.See in the lexicon → did not yet exist in the sense we know them). Laszlo's balance goes from more than 70,000 BTC to around 60,000 BTC that evening. Jercos receives his 10,000 BTC on a personal address, which he will spend largely in the following months on various purchases (video games, computer equipment).

The real cost for jercos is about 25 USD for the two pizzas, the Papa John's price at the time for two large pizzas with multiple toppings. At market rate (0.003 USD per BTC on average over May 2010), the 10,000 BTC are theoretically worth 30 USD. The operation is therefore profitable for jercos, who gets a small exchange×ExchangeService that lets you buy, sell and swap cryptocurrencies against fiat money. Examples : Kraken, Coinbase, Bitstamp, Bitvavo. Most are custodial.See in the lexicon → profit. But above all, he validates the concept : you can buy something tangible with bitcoin, without a platform, without institutional intermediary, just with a forum discussion and a properly configured wallet×WalletSoftware or device that manages your Bitcoin keys and lets you sign transactions. A wallet does not really « hold » your bitcoins, it holds the keys that prove you own them.See in the lexicon →.

A few details rarely recalled. First, this is not the first Bitcoin transaction at all : the blockchain has been used since 12 January 2009 (first known transfer from Satoshi×Satoshi (sat)The smallest unit of bitcoin. 1 BTC = 100 million satoshis. Named after the creator. In 2026, talking in sats becomes common as the price of one BTC rises.See in the lexicon → to Hal Finney, 10 BTC). What is first is the exchange against a physical good delivered in real life. Second, Laszlo will repeat the experience several times in the following weeks, until August 2010, spending in total around 100,000 BTC on pizzas. It is therefore a series of transactions, of which the 22 May 2010 is only the first public and documented one.

How 22 May became a celebration

The shift from news item to worldwide celebration takes about five years. As early as May 2011, on Bitcointalk, several users propose to mark the anniversary of the transaction. That year, Bitcoin reaches 7 USD for the first time, and Laszlo's transaction takes an almost mythical dimension : 70,000 USD was paid for two pizzas. The first Pizza Days are forum threads, accompanied by pizza photos and ironic calculations. No structure, no central organisation.

Crystallisation happens in 2014 and 2015, with the first wave of local meetups in Europe and the United States. The Bitcoin groups of Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Prague, New York, San Francisco synchronise on 22 May to organise pizza evenings payable in bitcoin. Room 77 in Berlin, which has accepted bitcoins since 2011, becomes a recurring meeting point. The Plan ₿ bar in Lugano×Lugano (Plan ₿)Swiss city that launched a Bitcoin adoption programme in 2022 (tax payments, shops, events). The annual Plan B Forum has become a European fixture.See in the lexicon → (which will open later, in 2022) picks up the same tradition.

From 2017 on, Pizza Day takes a professional dimension. Bitcoin Magazine dedicates a yearly article to it. Podcasts (Peter McCormack's What Bitcoin Did, Stephan Livera Podcast) make dedicated episodes. Major Bitcoin conferences (BTC Prague×BTC PragueBiggest European Bitcoin conference, held every summer in Prague since 2023. A showcase for the ecosystem.See in the lexicon → since 2023, Plan B Forum Lugano since 2022) often programme pizza side events around 22 May if the date falls during the event. In 2024, BitDevs (an international network of technical meetups) organises simultaneous Pizza Days in 47 cities.

Pizza Day is also a media event. Tech newsrooms (TechCrunch, Wired, Bloomberg, Les Échos) publish each year an article calculating « Laszlo's regret », that is what his 10,000 BTC are worth at the day's price. This yearly mechanic sustains the date's notoriety beyond the Bitcoin circle. For the community, this media treatment is ambivalent : it spreads the culture, but it also reduces the event to a regret anecdote, while it carries a deeper meaning about the nature of a usable currency.

Laszlo Hanyecz today

Laszlo Hanyecz keeps working in software development and stays active in the Bitcoin community, mainly as a contributor around mining×MiningProcess of validating blocks through proof of work. Consumes electricity by design : that is what secures the network.See in the lexicon → and porting the Bitcoin client to GPU. He was one of the first to port SHA-256×SHA-256Hash algorithm used by Bitcoin for proof of work and block hashing. Produces a 256-bit fingerprint (64 hexadecimal characters).See in the lexicon → hashing to graphics cards in 2010, which marked the start of the ASIC race. He is not a public figure in the media sense : no YouTube channel, no regular Twitter presence, few interviews.

He has given a few notable interviews over the years. In 2018 on CoinDesk, he declared he does not regret the transaction : at the time, the very idea that Bitcoin could be used for something was exciting, and paying 30 USD to validate the concept felt fair. In 2021, on an episode of What Bitcoin Did with Peter McCormack, he returned to the rest of the story : he kept using bitcoin regularly, and in 2018 notably realised the first pizza purchase over Lightning Network×Lightning NetworkSecond-layer payment network on top of Bitcoin. Enables near-instant and near-free payments through channels opened between users.See in the lexicon →, at a cost of only a few thousand sats.

He has attended Pizza Days in person in several American cities, generally quietly, without public announcement. In his rare interventions, he reminds that Bitcoin was created to be used, not just held. He owns up to a position the community sometimes calls « spender », as opposed to pure « HODLers » : for him, commercial utility matters as much as store of value, and Pizza Day is the historical proof.

His relationship to regret is interesting. In a 2020 Bloomberg interview he said : « Someone had to be the first to spend bitcoins on something real. The fact that it was me does not change the value of the experiment. The bitcoin I did not pay in pizzas would have been lost or spent on something else. I do not see a scenario where I would have become a billionaire by keeping everything. » This stance, which refuses the psychology of regret, became a reference point in discussions on time preference×Time preferenceEconomic concept adopted by bitcoiners. A low preference for the present (the ability to defer) makes saving in bitcoin easier.See in the lexicon → and the attitude towards the long term.

What Pizza Day teaches

Three lessons come up in every conversation about Pizza Day, and structure the cultural reading the Bitcoin community makes of it. The first concerns time preference×Time preferenceEconomic concept adopted by bitcoiners. A low preference for the present (the ability to defer) makes saving in bitcoin easier.See in the lexicon →. The concept comes from the Austrian school of economics (Mises, Rothbard) and designates an individual's propensity to privilege the present over the future. A high time preference pushes towards consuming now ; a low time preference pushes towards saving for later. Bitcoin, by its programmed scarcity and difficulty of spending (Lightning fees, waiting for confirmations), structurally rewards low time preference. Pizza Day is paradoxically a high preference demonstration : Laszlo privileged two immediate pizzas over 950 million deferred euros.

The second lesson concerns subjective value. At 0.003 USD per bitcoin in May 2010, the exchange×ExchangeService that lets you buy, sell and swap cryptocurrencies against fiat money. Examples : Kraken, Coinbase, Bitstamp, Bitvavo. Most are custodial.See in the lexicon → is rational : Laszlo exchanges 30 USD of perceived value against 30 USD of real pizzas. The value of an asset is not fixed by a future calculation, but by the present agreement between buyer and seller. This idea, central to the Austrian school (Menger, Böhm-Bawerk), remains useful to understand current Bitcoin markets : what 0.4 BTC are worth to Lena in 2026 depends on what she can do with them today, not just on their future price.

The third lesson is more practical. Pizza Day proved that a currency can be adopted if it is usable. Laszlo's transaction triggered a domino effect : dozens of merchants accepted Bitcoin between 2010 and 2014, from bars (Room 77 Berlin 2011) to online services (WordPress 2012, Reddit 2013, Microsoft 2014). This first wave of commercial adoption was slowed by the price rise (which made Bitcoin more attractive as store of value than as means of payment), then relaunched from 2018 by Lightning Network×Lightning NetworkSecond-layer payment network on top of Bitcoin. Enables near-instant and near-free payments through channels opened between users.See in the lexicon → which makes micro-payments viable again.

For Lena, the Pizza Day reading is more personal. She did not mine, she did not buy at 0.003 USD. She came in 2021 at 30,000 USD per bitcoin, and her monthly DCA×DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging)Buying a small fixed amount at regular intervals (for example 100 EUR a week), regardless of price. Smooths the average purchase cost and neutralises timing bias.See in the lexicon → does not make her an early adopter in the narrative sense. But she uses her sats regularly (Lightning in Berlin, in Lugano×Lugano (Plan ₿)Swiss city that launched a Bitcoin adoption programme in 2022 (tax payments, shops, events). The annual Plan B Forum has become a European fixture.See in the lexicon →, in Prague), and that is where Pizza Day culture keeps living. For her, Laszlo is not a character to pity : he is the prototype of the Bitcoiner×BitcoinerPerson interested in Bitcoin, who holds some and adheres more or less to its values (individual sovereignty, sound money, decentralisation).See in the lexicon → who uses the currency instead of just contemplating it.

How to celebrate Pizza Day in 2026

For those who want to take part in a Pizza Day in 2026, several practical options exist, from the simplest to the most committed. The most accessible path goes through local meetups. The meetup.com site and the bitcoinmeetup.org platform list groups by city. In Berlin, Lena hosts the one that meets the first Tuesday of each month at Room 77, open to everyone, free. 22 May is generally the most attended date of the year. Same setup in Zurich (Bitcoin Lakers), Paris (Paralelni Polis France), Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon, Milan.

The other option, more immersive, is to attend a European Bitcoin conference held around 22 May. BTC Prague×BTC PragueBiggest European Bitcoin conference, held every summer in Prague since 2023. A showcase for the ecosystem.See in the lexicon → (2026 edition planned mid-June, so not exactly on 22 May but culturally close) offers a Pizza Night side event every year. Plan B Forum Lugano×Lugano (Plan ₿)Swiss city that launched a Bitcoin adoption programme in 2022 (tax payments, shops, events). The annual Plan B Forum has become a European fixture.See in the lexicon → (October edition, but secondary summer gatherings) does the same. Bitcoin Amsterdam (September) and Bitcoin Atlantis Madeira (March) organise their own pizza evenings. For Lena, 22 May 2026 itself happens in Berlin with her group, but she uses BTC Prague in mid-June to extend the spirit.

For a quieter Pizza Day, at home or with two friends, the cultural mechanic works too. Order two pizzas from a local pizzaiolo (ideally one that accepts Lightning, otherwise in euros), open a bottle of wine, and watch a Bitcoin documentary together (The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin from 2014, Banking on Bitcoin from 2016, This Machine Greens from 2022 on mining×MiningProcess of validating blocks through proof of work. Consumes electricity by design : that is what secures the network.See in the lexicon → and energy). Podcasts release Pizza Day specials every year, available for free.

Lena has also set up a ritual habit : each 22 May, she sends a small sats amount (around 10,000 sats, the equivalent of a pizza price in 2026) to a Bitcoin organisation she cares about. This year it is Brink, which funds core Bitcoin developers. Previous years were Human Rights Foundation for the Bitcoin programmes in conflict zones, then Open Sats for free development. This gesture, modest in amount, is her personal way to celebrate Pizza Day by using the currency, not watching it. She invites her friends to do the same to a level of their choice.