A man spent around 100,000 bitcoin on some pizzas in 2010 and you won’t believe how much the bitcoin is worth today.
If you were told you could either eat two pizzas you’d been craving all day or not eat them and have $437 million in your bank account 13 years later – which would you take?
Well, the answer is pretty obviously.
Sadly, Laszo Hanyecz, didn’t have a magic ball nor fairy godmother to warn him how his decision could turn out in the future.
If you’re having a bad day, at least you didn’t lose out on $437 million for the sake of two pizzas.
And if you think that’s eye-watering, wait until you hear the rest of it:
Back on 18 May, 2010, Hanyecz took to the internet to go on Bitcoin Forum, offering 10,000 bitcoins for ‘a couple of pizzas’.
His post continues: “Like maybe two large ones so I have some left over for the next day. I like having left over pizza to nibble on later.
“You can make the pizza yourself and bring it to my house or order it for me from a delivery place, but what I’m aiming for is getting food delivered in exchange for bitcoins where I don’t have to order or prepare it myself, kind of like ordering a ‘breakfast platter’ at a hotel or something, they just bring you something to eat and you’re happy!”
Hanyecz went on to detail he likes things such as ‘onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes [and] pepperoni’ on his pizza, noting any ‘standard stuff’ would do, as long as there’s no ‘weird fish topping or anything like that’.
“I also like regular cheese pizzas which may be cheaper to prepare or otherwise acquire,” the post continues.
Little did Hanyecz know at the time that he should’ve probably asked for toppings of diamonds and gold on his pizza rather than ‘cheaper’ ingredients if he was really going to get his 10,000 bitcoins’ worth.
Neither did any others realise at the time just how much the bitcoin would go on to value, with Hanyecz even taking to the thread on May 21 to question: “So nobody wants to buy me pizza? Is the bitcoin amount i’m offering too low?”
On May 22, Hanyecz updated those following the thread he’d successfully ‘traded 10,000 bitcoins for pizza’ – Papa John’s to be precise – adding it was an ‘open offer’ and he would continue trading the same sum for ‘about 25 dollars total, maybe 30’ worth of pizza.
“If you get me the upgraded extra large ones or something, I can throw in some more bitcoins, just let me know and we’ll work something out,” he wrote.
By August 4, the dad closed the offer, noting he couldn’t afford to ‘generate thousands of coins a day anymore’ and it’s just as well, because he would’ve lost not just thousands of bitcoins but even more hundreds of millions of dollars would’ve escaped his grasp years down the line.
Yup, while 10,000 bitcoin may’ve equalled the price of two pizzas in 2010, 10,000 bitcoin now equates to around $437,000,000 – according to Google Market rates at the time of writing.
And Hanyecz didn’t just spend 10,000 bitcoin on pizzas, but an estimated 100,000 before he closed his offer on 4 August, 2010, as reported by the Independent.
This means he didn’t just lose out on $437 million, but a staggering $4.37 billion. Ouch.
So, the real question is, was the pizza really worth it or does Hanyecz regret it?
Well, the Bitcoin seller told Bitcoin Magazine in 2019: “I wanted to do the pizza thing because to me it was free pizza. I got pizza for contributing to an open-source project.
“Usually hobbies are a time sink and money sink, and in this case, my hobby bought me dinner.”
He resolved to Coin Telegraph: “I think that it’s great that I got to be part of the early history of Bitcoin in that way.”
Ah well, pizza box half empty eh?