Crypto Industry Celebrates 11th Anniversary of First Official BTC Transaction, Bitcoin Pizza Day
Today marks the eleven year anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day. The day has become synonymous with the first official BTC transaction, with Laszlo Hanyecz purchasing two pizzas for 10,000 BTC.
May 22. 2010, Florida Man Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10,000 BTC at Papa John’s pizza for the purchase of two pizzas. The transaction became known as the first official use of BTC as a commercial transaction with an actual company.
Eleven years and $372M later
While Hanyecz was an early pioneer of digital transactions for goods, it is likely the early adopter deeply regrets his decision. The two pizzas currently total a value of $372 million. Making it the most expensive pizza purchase in history.
At the time of purchase, Hanyecz’s 10,000 BTC was worth a meagre $40. Hanyecz reached out to the Bitcointalk community to see if anyone would be willing to transact the bitcoin for pizza.
He stated “I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas, like maybe two large ones so I have some left over for the next day. I like having left over pizza to nibble on later. You can make the pizza yourself and bring it to my house or order it for me from a delivery place, but what I’m aiming for is getting food delivered in exchange for bitcoins where I don’t have to order or prepare it myself, kind of like ordering a ‘breakfast platter’ at a hotel or something, they just bring you something to eat and you’re happy! If you’re interested please let me know and we can work out a deal.”
He later followed up on his original request, saying “So nobody wants to buy me pizza? Is the bitcoin amount I’m offering too low?”
However he later updated the story, showing evidence of his pizza purchase through bitcoin. Hanyecz proceeded to make the offer available to anyone who wanted to trade two pizzas for 10,000 BTC, saying “ I will trade 10,000 BTC for two of these pizzas any time as long as I have the funds (I usually have plenty).”
To this day, the infamous bitcoin pizza transaction is celebrated within the cryptocurrency industry.
Pompliano gives back on pizza day
Most recently, bitcoin maximalist Anothony Pompliano launched a one week bitcoin pizza drive to celebrate the eleven year anniversary. The drive will see 10,000 pizzas up for sale in ten cities. Every order supports the Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund.
Crypto projects join pizza movement
Bitcoin pizza day has seen several crypto projects join in to celebrate. PizzaDAO, a community of digital artists that create pizza non-fungible tokens (NFT) has partnered with Slice, the platform that powers the nation’s largest network of pizzerias to offer 2,500 free pizzas across the United States as a celebration of the day.
The initiative will see the two projects give away over one BTC worth of free pizza in support of local pizzerias. This is in support of the companies that have been hit by the recent Covid-19 pandemic.
Binance and Huobi offer pizza day drops
Popular crypto exchanges Binance and Huobi have also announced competitions to celebrate bitcoin pizza day. Huobi is running a $22,000 prize pool, with one user set to win $5,220.
Binance is currently running an NFT promotion, offering users the opportunity to win $52,200 worth of bitcoin pizza.
