Bitcoin Pizza Day: The 10,000 BTC Pizza Transaction, Verified On-Chain

Bitcoin Pizza Day is 22 May. On that day in 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, the first widely known purchase of a real-world good with bitcoin. The payment is still on the blockchain: transaction a1075db55d416d3ca199f55b6084e2115b9345e16c5cf302fc80e9d5fbf5d48d, confirmed in block 57,043. Anyone can look it up.

Here's the story, the on-chain details, and how to check them yourself.

The offer: "10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas"

On 18 May 2010, Laszlo posted on the Bitcointalk forum asking for pizza in exchange for bitcoin. His words:

"I'll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.. like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day. I like having left over pizza to nibble on later."

He didn't care whether someone baked them or ordered them for delivery. He just wanted food to arrive in exchange for bitcoin. At the time, bitcoin had no real market price, so nobody quite knew what 10,000 coins were worth. A few days passed with no deal.

The deal: 22 May 2010

On 22 May 2010, Laszlo posted again in the same thread:

"I just want to report that I successfully traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza."

He shared photos and thanked jercos, the forum user who took the deal and had two pizzas delivered. They're widely reported to have been from Papa John's.

The pizza transaction hash, verified

Here's what a public block explorer shows for the pizza transaction (we checked it on mempool.space):

Field	Value
Transaction ID (txid)	a1075db55d416d3ca199f55b6084e2115b9345e16c5cf302fc80e9d5fbf5d48d
Block height	57,043
Block time	22 May 2010, 18:16:31 UTC
Inputs	131
Outputs	1, paying exactly 10,000 BTC to 17SkEw2md5avVNyYgj6RiXuQKNwkXaxFyQ
Fee	0.99 BTC

Why 131 inputs? Laszlo was an early miner, and his coins were spread across lots of small chunks. In 2010, a block reward was 50 BTC, so it took many pieces to add up to 10,000. A wallet gathers those pieces into one payment.

How to check it yourself

1. Open any Bitcoin block explorer, such as mempool.space.
2. Paste the txid above into the search box.
3. Look for block 57,043, the single 10,000 BTC output, and the 131 inputs.

That's the nice thing about Bitcoin history: you don't have to trust a blog post (this one included). You can verify it.

What is 10,000 BTC worth today?

We're not putting a dollar figure here, because it would be out of date in a day. Take the current BTC price and multiply by 10,000. That's what those two pizzas would cost now, and it's why the story gets retold every May.

Why Bitcoin Pizza Day matters

Before May 2010, bitcoin was mostly mined, sent between enthusiasts, and talked about. The pizza trade showed that someone would hand over a real thing for it. That's why the community still marks 22 May every year, often by buying pizza with bitcoin.

It also fits a pattern in early Bitcoin history: the important moments are written into the chain itself. The Genesis Block message is the first; the pizza transaction is one of the most loved.