The man who spent 10,000 bitcoins on a pizza, Laszlo: My hobby bought me dinner

Author: Hill Far, Centreless

Published in March 2025

The pizza purchased at the time

On May 18, 2010, at 12:35 PM, a user with the ID Laszlo posted a bounty thread on the Bitcoin forum offering 10,000 bitcoins for two large pizzas. The seller could either make them himself or order delivery, and Laszlo also detailed his taste preferences in the post. Prior to this, on April 16, he had joined the Bitcoin Talk Forum initiated by Bitcoin's founder Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin had only recently emerged in 2010, and people were still unfamiliar with this so-called "digital cryptocurrency" existing online, let alone having any concept of trading it. As a result, the post did not immediately attract much attention. Only a few users expressed willingness to buy him pizza, but transactions failed because they were not based in the United States.

At that time, 10,000 bitcoins were worth approximately $30, leading Laszlo to briefly wonder if his offer was too low. It wasn't until four days later, on May 22, that Laszlo replied on the forum confirming he had successfully acquired the pizzas, sharing photos of them. Thus, May 22 became known as "Bitcoin Pizza Day."

This transaction holds historical significance as the first-ever Bitcoin transaction, marking the moment Bitcoin gained functional use as currency rather than merely existing as data on a network. Of course, this initial offline transaction also carried an experimental nature—testing whether Bitcoin could actually function as real money.

In a 2019 interview with Bitcoin Magazine, when asked why he did it, Laszlo said, "I wanted to buy pizza with Bitcoin because, to me, it was free pizza. I mean, I coded this thing and mined the Bitcoin—it felt like I won the internet that day. I got pizza for contributing to an open-source project. Hobbies usually cost time and money; in this case, my hobby bought me dinner."

Laszlo

Laszlo’s “experiment” was also possible due to how easy mining was at the time. As a programmer, he was among the earliest adopters of Bitcoin and credited with pioneering GPU mining, reportedly quickly amassing tens of thousands of bitcoins.

According to blockchain explorer OXT's charting tool, Laszlo’s wallet saw increasing inflows starting May 2010, peaking that month at 20,962 BTC. The 10,000 BTC spent on the pizza was quickly replenished through mining (his wallet reached a record high of 43,854 BTC in June 2010, after which BTC slowly trickled out—he may have had multiple wallets).

After the famous pizza transaction, as Bitcoin’s price soared, netizens continually updated comments under the original post with the current market value of those two pizzas. Laszlo himself commented that he never expected Bitcoin to rise so fast.

Even as Bitcoin grew more valuable over time, Laszlo Hanyecz stated in later interviews that he didn’t regret the purchase or lose sleep over it. In his own words, he was quite happy back then—after all, he got free pizza using his GPU.

In fact, after completing the first transaction, Laszlo Hanyecz began frequently spending Bitcoin, ultimately using around 100,000 bitcoins—worth over $4 billion today. The 10,000 bitcoins he spent on a $30 pizza are now worth more than $260 million.

Laszlo has remained relatively low-key, never opening personal social media accounts, leaving uncertain whether he became wealthy from Bitcoin.

However, we can trace what happened to the 10,000 bitcoins received by the seller.

The buyer who completed the deal with Laszlo Hanyecz was a 19-year-old California boy named Jeremy Sturdivant. He had started exploring Bitcoin in 2009 and mined several thousand coins himself. Jeremy was also an early Bitcoin consumer, seizing every opportunity to spend Bitcoin online or offline. According to him, he used the 10,000 bitcoins for trips with his girlfriend.

In a 2018 interview, Jeremy admitted he never imagined Bitcoin would appreciate so dramatically. Still, he said he didn’t regret spending the coins, noting the pizza sale earned him $400—a tenfold return—which made the deal worthwhile.

Since then, Bitcoin’s price trajectory has been evident to all. In May 2023, markets and investors remained confident in Bitcoin, eagerly anticipating the next halving event.

Hanyecz has maintained this positive attitude throughout. Perhaps because since joining the Bitcoin open-source community in 2010, his approach to Bitcoin hasn’t changed. To him, it remains a hobby, not a career.

The low-profile Hanyecz has continued participating as a Bitcoin enthusiast ever since.

"Honestly, I’ve kind of stepped back because there’s too much attention," he said. "I don’t want that spotlight, and certainly don’t want people thinking I’m Satoshi... I just think it’s better as a hobby. I have a regular job—I won’t work on Bitcoin full-time. I don’t want it to become my responsibility or profession. I’m glad I’ve been able to participate at this level."

On May 22, 2019, Bitcoin Magazine noted they were equally glad Hanyecz remained involved. "After all, he gave us Bitcoin Core on MacOS and GPU mining—and the pizza meme. While it might not be as significant or impressive as Hanyecz’s other contributions, for the community, it makes every May 22 memorable (and delicious)."