BTC Community Celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day: Why Is It So Special?

The Bitcoin community went abuzz Wednesday as many prominent figures in the crypto industry and users of the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency celebrated Bitcoin Pizza Day, which falls on May 22 every year.

Bitcoin Pizza Day commemorates the day programmer from Florida Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC when he ordered two Papa John’s pizzas. The said transaction is widely considered in the sector as the first purchase ever made using Bitcoin, which was, at the time, an experiential digital asset for many.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Hanyecz’s purchase was worth some $30 at the time. BTC was trading just below $70,000 as of writing, which puts the current value of Hanyecz’s pizza buy at around $700 million today.

Among the prominent crypto figures celebrating Bitcoin Pizza Day was MicroStrategy founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor. Pizza keeps getting cheaper on a #Bitcoin Standard,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), along with a picture of him and two pizzas on the table.

Digital asset manager Eric Weiss said the moment BTC “first gained value” through the known first purchase of pizza using the digital coin was “immaculate” and “will never be replicated.” Weiss’ remarks back the crypto industry’s long-standing view that cryptocurrencies can be used as a medium of exchange. Back in 2010, there were many skeptics and many financial experts deemed the coin as having no monetary value.

Fast forward to 2024 and Bitcoin has become the world’s largest digital asset, with a price tag many other cryptocurrencies have a long way to catch up to. It also remains popular among crypto traders and hit an all-time high of $73,000 in March.

Its popularity remains unbeaten in the crypto space, and several analysts expect the coin’s price to only climb higher in the coming years. Research firm Bernstein, for instance, retained its earlier projection of BTC hitting $150,000 at the end of 2025 even during the digital asset’s downtime after its April 20 halving.

X users shared pizza and Bitcoin memes Wednesday to commemorate the significant milestone in the digital asset’s journey toward wider adoption.

One post saw BTC Pizza Day as a good opportunity to share the “moral” in Hanyecz’s story. “If he had held onto his Bitcoin, he could buy an entire pizza company today and still have some Bitcoins left over … Value Bitcoin so it can value you!” the post read.