The Most Expensive Pizzas in History (And Why We Celebrate Them Every Year)

Sixteen years ago today, a guy paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas. Don't laugh, he's the reason any of this matters.

Every 22nd of May, the Bitcoin world fires up the ovens, orders a stupid amount of pizza, and toasts a man named Laszlo Hanyecz. Because on this day in 2010, Laszlo did something that sounds completely mad now: he handed over 10,000 BTC for two Papa John's pizzas.

At the time, that was worth roughly $41. Today? Those same 10,000 coins are worth somewhere north of £570 million. Per pizza, that's around £289 million. Extra cheese not included.

So why do we celebrate the most catastrophically expensive takeaway order in human history? Because it's not the punchline. It's the point.

The transaction that proved Bitcoin worked

Before 22 May 2010, Bitcoin was an idea. A whitepaper, a bit of code, a small group of cypherpunks mining coins on their laptops and arguing on forums. It had no price, no exchanges, no real-world use. It was money that nobody had ever actually spent.

Laszlo changed that. He posted on the Bitcointalk forum offering 10,000 BTC to anyone who'd order him a couple of pizzas. A teenager took him up on it, placed the order, and history was made. It was the first documented time Bitcoin was used to buy something real.

That's the moment Bitcoin stopped being a thought experiment and became money. Someone valued it. Someone accepted it. The loop closed. Everything that's happened since, every exchange, every ETF, every "have fun staying poor", traces back to two pizzas in Florida.

Don't feel sorry for Laszlo

It's easy to do the maths and wince. £570 million for dinner. But here's the thing the headlines always miss: Laszlo knows. He's spoken about it plenty over the years, and he's never been the guy crying into his keyboard. He understood exactly what he was doing, he was bootstrapping a currency by being the first person willing to spend it.

Money only has value if it moves. If everyone in 2010 had simply hodled and nobody ever transacted, Bitcoin would've been a dead curiosity. Laszlo proving you could buy stuff with it was arguably worth more to the network than the coins themselves. He paid the price so the rest of us could have the thing.

That's proof of work in the most literal sense. Somebody had to go first.

The lesson nobody talks about

Bitcoin Pizza Day usually gets framed as a cautionary tale, "look at the idiot who spent a fortune." We see it differently.

It's a reminder that Bitcoin is meant to be used. Not just hoarded in cold storage and stared at. Spent. Circulated. Put to work. The whole point of sound money is that it's money, a tool for trade, not just a number to watch go up.

It's also a reminder of how far we've come. In 2010, you had to beg a forum stranger to accept your coins. Today you can pay for your morning coffee, your flights, and, ahem, your sneakers over the Lightning Network in seconds.
The financial system Laszlo helped kick off is now genuinely usable, and getting more so every year.

How to celebrate (the Satoshoes way)

• Order a pizza. Obviously. It's tradition. Bonus points if you can find somewhere that accepts sats.
• Spend a few sats today. Even a tiny Lightning payment. Keep the money moving. That's the spirit of the day.
• Tell someone the story. Pizza Day is one of the best orange-pilling moments of the year, it's funny, it's human, and it gets people asking questions. That's how it starts.
• Wear the message. Nothing sparks a Pizza Day conversation quite like turning up in a pair of Bitcoin sneakers. Or the New Pizza Day Tee's.  Just saying.

So here's to Laszlo, to two pizzas, and to the most important meal in monetary history. Sixteen years on, the network he helped prove is stronger than ever.

Stack sats. Wear the message. We are all Satoshi. 🍕🟠

Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day from all of us at Satoshoes.