Laszlo Hanyecz Spent 10,000 Bitcoin on Pizza and Never Looked Back

On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz became a legend in cryptocurrency history—not by accumulating wealth, but by letting it slip through his fingers. He traded 10,000 BTC for two large pizzas, a transaction that would eventually be worth over $260 million by 2025. Yet the man behind this iconic deal remains remarkably at peace with his choice.

The Day Bitcoin Became Real Money

Four days before pizza day, Laszlo Hanyecz posted a simple request on the Bitcoin Talk Forum: 10,000 Bitcoins in exchange for two pizzas. At the time, those coins were worth roughly $30. The post didn’t generate immediate interest—most people didn’t know how to process this strange Internet currency, let alone trade it. But Laszlo wasn’t deterred. He was curious about something more fundamental: Could Bitcoin actually work as money in the real world?

On May 18, 2010, 19-year-old Jeremy Sturdivant took the bait. He ordered the pizzas, completed the transaction, and inadvertently became part of Bitcoin history. The moment Laszlo confirmed receipt of his meal, Bitcoin transformed from theoretical digital asset into functioning currency. No intermediaries. No payment processors. Just peer-to-peer value exchange. That’s why May 22 is celebrated annually as Bitcoin Pizza Day—it proved the concept could work.

The Miner Who Chose Hobby Over Fortune

Laszlo Hanyecz wasn’t some lucky early buyer. He was an innovator. As one of Bitcoin’s first miners, he pioneered GPU mining and helped develop Bitcoin Core and GPU support for MacOS. According to blockchain explorer OXT, his wallet accumulated over 43,000 BTC at its peak in June 2010. The 10,000 BTC pizza purchase was barely a dent in his holdings—he replenished it within days through continued mining.

Yet when asked decades later if he regretted the transaction, Laszlo’s answer was unambiguous: no. In interviews with Bitcoin Magazine, he explained his philosophy with disarming simplicity. “I mined Bitcoin, and I felt like I won the Internet that day. I earned pizza by contributing to open-source projects,” he said. For him, Bitcoin was always a hobby, not a wealth accumulation scheme. That mindset never changed. To this day, he maintains a day job and refuses to make Bitcoin his full-time career or primary responsibility. “I just thought it was better as a hobby,” Laszlo reflected. “I didn’t want the attention.”

This deliberate anonymity stands in sharp contrast to crypto’s obsession with wealth narratives. Laszlo has no public social media presence, no desire for fame, no announcement of his net worth. He simply continued contributing to the open-source community because he believed in the technology.

A Buyer and Seller Both at Peace

Jeremy Sturdivant, the pizza seller, tells a similar story. After receiving those 10,000 BTC, he spent them traveling with his girlfriend. In a 2018 interview, he admitted he never anticipated Bitcoin’s meteoric appreciation. Yet he held no bitterness. The $400 he received at the time eventually appreciated tenfold through the coins’ value increase—so even by his own accounting, it was a good deal.

Both men embodied the same ethos: they used Bitcoin as it was meant to be used—as a medium of exchange, not a vehicle for speculation. They got what they wanted at a price they considered fair. The fact that the same assets later became worth billions doesn’t change the calculus of their original transaction.

Why This Story Still Matters

The Bitcoin pizza narrative endures because it captures something often lost in modern crypto discourse: utility before moonshots, community before riches, principle before price. Laszlo Hanyecz didn’t just make a historical transaction—he demonstrated that early adopters of transformative technology aren’t necessarily motivated by financial gain. They’re motivated by possibility, by testing whether something works, by contributing to something larger than themselves.

As Bitcoin’s price continues to fluctuate and crypto evolves, Laszlo’s low-key presence remains a quiet reminder that not every pioneer needs a press release.