Sixteen years in the past at this time, a Florida programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoin for 2 massive Papa John’s pizzas. On the time, these cash have been value roughly $41. On this Pizza Day, they’re value $777.87 million — down $328 million from final yr’s anniversary value.
Bitcoin Pizza Day, noticed every Could 22, marks the primary business transaction utilizing Bitcoin — the second a digital forex stopped being a theoretical experiment and have become a medium of alternate for actual items.
On Could 18, 2010, Hanyecz posted on the BitcoinSpeak discussion board with an easy provide: 10,000 BTC to anybody keen to order him two pizzas. Some discussion board customers have been skeptical — one identified he may promote the cash for $41 in money.
Hanyecz’s reply was easy: “I just think it would be interesting if I could say that I paid for a pizza in Bitcoins”. 4 days later, a then-19-year-old discussion board person named Jeremy Sturdivant accepted, ordered the pies from Papa John’s, and picked up 10,000 BTC by way of handbook switch. Bitcoin had its first alternate charge towards a client good.
The $328 million bitcoin haircut
Each Could 22, that fastened 10,000 BTC will get revalued on the day’s spot value — the cleanest annual benchmark crypto has. In 2024, the stack was value $674 million. In 2025, it hit a file $1.106 billion, with Bitcoin buying and selling at $110,568 on that day’s all-time excessive. Right this moment, with Bitcoin close to $77,300, the stack sits at $777.87 million — down 29.7% from final yr.
The decline started on October 6, 2025, when Bitcoin reached a recent all-time excessive of $126,000. 4 days later, President Donald Trump introduced 100% tariffs on Chinese language imports and export controls on important U.S. software program.
Inside hours, whole crypto market capitalization fell almost $200 billion in a single session, Bitcoin dropped from $122,000 to $107,000, and roughly $19 billion in leveraged positions have been liquidated — the most important single-day liquidation occasion in crypto historical past.
The worst begin since 2018
Q1 2026 grew to become Bitcoin’s third-worst opening quarter on file, closing down 23.2%, with spot Bitcoin ETFs bleeding $4.5 billion in outflows throughout the primary eight weeks of the yr. Iran tensions compounded the strain, as U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on February 28 triggered a pointy risk-off rotation, trapping Bitcoin between $60,000 and $75,000 for a lot of March.
Q2 has introduced partial restoration — Bitcoin has climbed roughly 14% over the quarter — however the broader crypto market cap sits at $2.65 trillion at this time, down from $2.9 trillion only one week in the past.
