The Guy Who Bought Pizza With Bitcoin: The $260 Million Story Nobody Regrets

In 2010, when a guy bought pizza with bitcoin, few realized they were witnessing a pivotal moment in cryptocurrency history. On May 18, 2010, at 12:35 PM, Laszlo Hanyecz posted an unusual offer on the Bitcoin Talk Forum—he would exchange 10,000 bitcoins for two large pizzas. What seemed like a casual food transaction would become legendary in the crypto world, and remarkably, both parties involved still have zero regrets about the deal.

The pizza purchase changed everything not because of the food itself, but because it proved something fundamental: bitcoin could actually be used for real-world transactions. At the time, bitcoin was largely theoretical—lines of code with no clear utility beyond speculation. The transaction occurred when those 10,000 bitcoins were worth roughly $30, making it an affordable experiment. Four days later, on May 22, 2010, Laszlo confirmed the deal was done and posted a photo of the pizzas. That date became Bitcoin Pizza Day, annually celebrated by the crypto community.

May 18, 2010: The Day a Guy Bought Pizza With Bitcoin

Laszlo wasn’t randomly spending his bitcoin holdings. As an early programmer and one of Bitcoin’s first GPU miners, he had accumulated tens of thousands of coins through computational power. According to blockchain explorer OXT, his wallet peaked at over 20,000 BTC in May 2010, suggesting mining had been remarkably productive in those early days. For him, the pizza purchase represented something personal: “I wrote this thing and mined bitcoin, and I felt like I won the Internet that day—I earned pizza by contributing to open source projects,” he later explained.

The transaction demonstrated that bitcoin functioned as intended—as a medium of exchange, not just digital storage. While this seems obvious today, in 2010 it was genuinely experimental. Most early adopters were still debating whether bitcoin would ever have practical applications beyond hobbyists passing data around the internet.

Laszlo’s Bitcoin Pizza: A 10,000-Coin Journey Without Regret

What makes this story remarkable is Laszlo’s attitude about the deal. Even as bitcoin’s value skyrocketed—those 10,000 pizzas-worth coins would eventually exceed $260 million by 2025—he maintained he harbored no remorse. This wasn’t false bravado; it reflected his philosophy about bitcoin itself. For Laszlo, cryptocurrency was always a hobby, a passion project, never a get-rich-quick scheme.

His story gets even more interesting when you learn he continued spending bitcoin after the pizza transaction. Historical records suggest he spent approximately 100,000 bitcoins across various transactions over time—a value that would dwarf the pizza deal. Yet rather than chasing wealth, Laszlo kept his involvement low-key. He contributed significantly to Bitcoin Core and GPU mining development on macOS, then stepped back from the spotlight. “Honestly, I kind of stayed out of it because there was so much attention,” he explained. “I didn’t want to draw that attention… I just thought it was better as a hobby. I have a normal job, I’m not doing bitcoin full-time.”

The Pizza Seller’s Perspective: Jeremy’s Bitcoin Story

The 19-year-old California guy who received Laszlo’s 10,000 bitcoins for the pizzas was named Jeremy Sturdivant. Like Laszlo, Jeremy was an early bitcoin enthusiast who had mined thousands of coins himself. He immediately saw the appeal of using bitcoin for everyday transactions and actively sought payment opportunities whenever possible.

Jeremy spent those 10,000 bitcoins on travel with his girlfriend—money he actually used to live his life rather than hold as an investment. When interviewed in 2018, he reflected on the deal without any trace of regret. “I never thought bitcoin would have such big appreciation potential,” he admitted. But crucially, he didn’t frame the transaction as a loss: he calculated that he’d earned approximately $400 from the pizza sale at the time, which represented solid compensation for that era. Even accounting for bitcoin’s astronomical rise, Jeremy maintained the deal felt fair when executed.

From Pizza to Protocol: The Legacy of Bitcoin’s First Real Transaction

The bitcoin pizza story transcends simple nostalgia. It represents a fundamental truth about early cryptocurrency adoption: the participants who built value were motivated by belief in technology and community contribution, not speculation. Both Laszlo and Jeremy embodied this ethos—they used bitcoin because they believed in its utility, not because they expected it to become a financial asset.

The transaction also highlights an often-overlooked aspect of Bitcoin’s development: individuals like Laszlo weren’t just using the network, they were building it. His GPU mining innovations and Bitcoin Core contributions directly shaped the protocol’s evolution. The pizza purchase, therefore, wasn’t just a transaction—it was a statement from an early developer that bitcoin worked.

Bitcoin Pizza Day has become the crypto community’s annual celebration precisely because it captures this moment of belief before price dominance the narrative. When a guy bought pizza with bitcoin in 2010, he wasn’t betting on trillion-dollar valuations. He was proving a concept, testing an idea, and earning a meal through open-source contribution. That both he and the pizza seller remain content with their choices reveals something important about early adoption: sometimes the real value isn’t in the future price, but in being part of something revolutionary when it mattered most.