Due to cryptocurrency’s volatility, the fluctuations in price over the years have been truly mind-boggling and has made some people very very rich, while giving some others cause for regret down the line. One of the craziest stories regarding cryptocurrency and bitcoin, in particular, was immortalized in the crypto community forever.
The first cryptocurrency transaction in the real world took place on May 22, 2010. On that fateful day, Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 bitcoins for two delivered Papa John's pizzas. The Hungarian developer had a fierce hunger and bitcoins to spare and used the bitcointalk forums to find a user in the UK to make the $25 delivery order for him in exchange for the 10,000 bitcoins, a transaction that was pretty over-the-top back then and even crazier today.
In 2010 the value of one bitcoin was already rising. Differing estimates put the dollar value of each pizza anywhere between $21 up to around $300 per pizza. In 2011 bitcoin reached parity with the US dollar, making the two pizzas worth $10,000. In the present day terms, Hanyecz would have spent over 35 million dollars to purchase one pizza.
Both for its historic value and the lesson it teaches about bitcoin’s meteoric increase in value, the anniversary of the transaction is celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza day by the crypto community. As for Hanyecz, he remains admirably zen about the mind-blowing numbers involved: "It wasn’t like bitcoins had any value back then, so the idea of trading them for a pizza was incredibly cool," he told the NY Times.