Two Papa John’s pizzas were bought for 10,000 bitcoins in the famous 2010 transaction.
On May 22, 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz offered 10,000 bitcoins in an online forum in exchange for two pizzas. Jeremy Sturdivant, a 19-year-old in California, accepted the offer and ordered two Papa John’s pizzas for delivery to Hanyecz in Jacksonville, Florida. The transaction became the first widely recognized real-world purchase using bitcoin.
The bitcoins were worth roughly $41 at the time, making the deal appear ordinary by early cryptocurrency standards. Its later fame came from bitcoin’s enormous price increase, which transformed the pizzas into a symbol of the potential cost of spending an early digital currency. The event is commemorated annually as Bitcoin Pizza Day.
A common mix-up is saying Hanyecz personally paid a Papa John’s cashier directly. The arrangement was made through the forum: Sturdivant used the bitcoins he received and arranged the delivery. The transaction involved two pizzas, not one, and the amount was 10,000 bitcoins—not 10,000 dollars.