What could you buy with Bitcoin in 2010? When freedom was worth two pizzas

It’s May 22, 2010. You’re hungry, and on your computer sits something almost nobody wants, but that has a bit of value. That’s how the story of Laszlo Hanyecz and his legendary pizza purchase began. That same day, Bitcoin stopped being code and became real money. That’s why the crypto community calls it Bitcoin Pizza Day. Do you know the story?

The first Real-World purchase

Without realizing it, Laszlo had just done something that would go viral on TikTok today in a matter of hours. He was making history when he posted on the Bitcoin Talk forum: “I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas… maybe two large ones, so I have some leftovers for the next day. I like leftover pizza to snack on later.”

At that time, those 10,000 BTC were worth only around $41. Jeremy Sturdivant, known as “jercos” on the forum, accepted the deal and ordered the pizzas from Papa John’s. Those super pizzas would be remembered by humanity forever and would change our perception of digital money. If you’re curious, you can see the transaction on blockchain.com.

Some remember it as something historic and incredible, though Laszlo probably doesn’t recall it so fondly… This transaction taught us for the first time that Bitcoin could be exchanged for real-world items. The crypto experiment was a thing of the past—Bitcoin had officially become a new way to understand value.

The purchasing power of “Back Then”

You needed a lot of vision for the future back then. In 2010, Bitcoin was worth just a few cents. With one BTC, you could buy gum or a cheap coffee, and that was about it. The crypto community was tiny, and miners gave away bitcoins just to see what would happen.

Some people used hundreds of BTC to buy a burger, and others spent thousands on online purchases that now seem ridiculous. The truth is, BTC was practically worthless, and few saw its long-term potential.

The concept of “HODL” didn’t exist because nobody could imagine the tsunami coming in a few years.

Traveling to the present: What could you buy today with those 10,000 Bitcoins?

Now that we’re up-to-date, the question is: How much are those pizzas worth today? What could Laszlo buy with those 10k BTC? At Bitcoin’s current price at the time of writing this article (approximately €98,500 per BTC), those 10,000 bitcoins are now worth a staggering €985 million. Yes, you read that right. Nine hundred eighty-five million euros. I imagine the pizzas were amazing.

To put it in perspective, Laszlo spent the equivalent of nearly a billion euros on two pizzas. It’s probably the most expensive meal in human history.

The Rebel’s Dream List

Want to know what you could buy with that kind of money? Your imagination is the limit:

• A private island in the Caribbean (and you’d still have enough to build a luxury resort)
• A fleet of 2,000 Tesla Model S Plaids
• The Château de Versailles… if it were for sale
• Your own Formula 1 team for several seasons
• 15,000 apartments worth €60,000 each
• A trip to space with SpaceX for you… and 1,000 friends

Which one would you pick?

Or you could just hold onto your Bitcoin and wait for it to keep growing. Imagine making the news in 10 years for having bought something like that—and Bitcoin doubling in price. If this story has taught us anything, it’s that underestimating Bitcoin has always been a huge mistake.

If you want a reality check and wonder what you can actually buy today with YOUR BTC—not Laszlo’s—here’s a list of options for spending the remaining satoshis in your wallet (hopefully a Bitnovo one).

💻📲 Technology/Software

• Microsoft before 2024: You could buy Xbox games, apps, Office, and cloud services directly with Bitcoin. Now you can do it via Bitnovo by converting your BTC in real time.
• PayPal: Automatic crypto-to-fiat conversion at checkout, with withdrawals to external wallets.

🛒 Online Shopping/E-commerce

• Starbucks: Accepts Bitcoin via its partnership with the SPEDN digital payment platform by reloading your card.
• Whole Foods: Supermarkets allowing crypto payments through the Flexa payment network.
• Gucci and other luxury brands: Bitcoin is now a status symbol—and luxury brands know it.

📱 Digital Services

• AT&T: Mobile phone bills payable with Bitcoin.
• ExpressVPN: VPN and cloud storage services.

These are just examples. Many global brands like McDonald’s and other chains have adopted Bitcoin in recent years. I don’t know why you’re still paying with FIAT, grandpa!

From imagination to reality: spend your bitcoins without gas fees

We’ve seen what you could buy with the pizza money—but since you don’t have it 🙁 let’s come back to the sad, practical reality. It’s undeniable that holding Bitcoin puts you at the financial frontier, but using it directly for daily purchases can be a headache.

The gas problem

We all know that paying directly with Bitcoin can be tricky:

• Network fees can be unpredictable.
• Slow transactions during activity peaks.
• Volatility makes prices change while waiting for confirmation.
• Many merchants still don’t accept Bitcoin as direct payment.

Imagine trying to buy a coffee and waiting 30 minutes for the transaction to process—or paying more in fees than the product costs. Nobody wants that, and it moves us further from crypto mass adoption.

Financial freedom is one click away

The Bitcoin pizza story is something to always keep in mind—it’s also a lesson. Value isn’t always obvious at first, but opportunities only come to those ready to seize them.