- This year’s Bitcoin Pizza Day comes at a time when the 10,000 BTC Laszlo Hanyecz paid for pizza is $300 million lighter than last year.
- Despite the drop, the global crypto community is celebrating the day BTC got its first documented use case as a payment method.
It’s that time of the year again when the global crypto community unites to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day. However, this year, the pizza order is $300 million lighter as macro-economic downturns drag crypto and most risk-on assets down.
On May 22, 2010, Florida programmer Laszlo Hanyecz went on the Bitcointalk forum and asked if anyone could order him two Papa John’s pizzas in exchange for 10,000 BTC. A user took him up on the offer, ordered him the pizzas for $41, and received the BTC in return. It was the first time Bitcoin had been used to make a real-world payment.
Every year, the crypto community celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day on May 22. However, this year, the celebration is muted, with Bitcoin struggling on the price charts. BTC trades at $77,330 at press time, and while it has gained slightly over the past day, it trades 4% lower on the weekly chart and 12% lower year-to-date.
This year’s Bitcoin Pizza Day is starkly different from last year’s. On May 22 last year, Bitcoin was trading at $110,600 and would go on to set a new all-time high at $126,000 later that year as the entire crypto market reached a record $4.3 trillion market cap.
However, shortly after, President Trump started his tariff war, devastating the market. Risk-on assets like crypto and stocks were the first to be hit, with Bitcoin losing $15,000 in the hours after the US government announced its new tariffs.
The bears took over, and by the end of January this year, most cryptos had dropped nearly 40% from their October highs. Bitcoin finished Q1 on its worst run in the first three months of a year since 2018, losing 22% of its value.
During the Bitcoin Pizza Day last year, the 10,000 BTC Hanyecz paid for those two pizzas in 2010 was worth $1.1 billion. This year, they have shed 30% of that value and are worth $773 million.
Crypto Industry Celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day
Despite the bearish market over the past year, the crypto sector has celebrated Bitcoin Pizza Day globally. Crypto exchanges, wallets, crypto payment platforms and more celebrated the day by offering discounts, prize money and free crypto. Bitget even made a new music video that plays on the ‘Crypto is Dead’ narrative.
This Bitcoin Pizza Day, win from a share of $10,000 in Bitcoin! 🍕
In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas. Today that's almost a billion dollars.
Generate your most absurd, over-the-top, billion dollar pizza creation. 10 winners will win $1000 in $BTC each.… pic.twitter.com/qansZTfKPv
— Kraken (@krakenfx) May 22, 2026
Simon Gerovich, the CEO of Japanese Bitcoin Treasury company Metaplanet, lauded Hanyecz for his contribution to the rise of Bitcoin payments, saying that “someone had to be the first to use it as currency.”
Memecoin project FLOKI also hailed Hanyecz for this contribution, stating:
“6 years ago today, someone spent 10,000 on two pizzas. Today, it stands as one of the most iconic moments in crypto history, a reminder that every major movement starts small before the world understands it.”
