The Billion-Dollar Pizza: What happened to Laszlo Hanyecz and his 10,000 Bitcoin?



**The Moment That Changed Everything**

It was May 22, 2010, when Laszlo Hanyecz made a piece of cryptocurrency history. The programmer conducted the first commercial Bitcoin transaction, paying for two pizzas with 10,000 BTC. The value? Just $41. A bargain, one might think – back then.

**The Real Bill Comes Later**

Fast forward to 2025: Bitcoin is currently trading at $85.93K. That means: those two pizzas are theoretically worth over a billion dollars today. No longer a bargain. They are the most legendary and expensive pizzas ever eaten.

For comparison: that’s the price of an entire private island, a luxury art collection wing, or the annual budgets of several small countries. No wonder May 22 remains unforgettable in the crypto community as “Bitcoin Pizza Day” and is celebrated year after year.

**The Big Question: Is Laszlo Still Holding?**

The secret has never been revealed. Laszlo Hanyecz has not publicly commented to this day whether he still owns Bitcoin. The speculation is wild: Could he have kept a large part of his holdings from back then? That would actually make him a billionaire today.

But there are also other realistic scenarios. Many early Bitcoin holders sold their coins when BTC broke the 100s or 1,000s mark – convinced that the peak had been reached. Others lost access to their wallets, stored private keys, and their coins became inactive forever. No one knows what fate befell Laszlo.

**Why This Story Is More Than Just a Pizza Anecdote**

Laszlo’s transaction was not just a curiosity. It was proof – that Bitcoin can function as a real means of payment. It showed the world: this is not just code on a screen, this is a functioning currency.

This realization paved the way for everything that followed. Millions of transactions, billions of dollars in value, and ultimately a global market for digital assets now worth trillions. Pizza transactions may seem cheesy today – but they were the first stone cast into the water, creating waves.

Whether Laszlo Hanyecz is a Bitcoin millionaire today or missed the opportunity will remain his secret. But his story remains: the man who, without knowing it, placed perhaps the most valuable pizza order in human history.
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