On May 22, 2010, a developer bought two pizzas for 10,000 units of a then-little-known digital currency called Bitcoin.
Today, those 10,000 bitcoins are worth more than $20 million (£15.4 million).
Bitcoin is going absolutely nuclear now. Its price is tearing upwards, with each bitcoin currently worth $2,128 (£1,638) – a little shy of all-time-high of $2,185 (£1,682), earlier this morning.
Just a year ago, it was trading at just $443 (£341), after deflating from what was then seen as the giddy highs of around $1,100 (£847) in late 2013. It has since embarked on an epic bull run.
“The Japanese have caught the Bitcoin bug and inefficiencies across markets are being exposed,” CryptoCompare founder Charles Hayter said in an emailed comment. “Irrational exuberance is taking hold as the Japanese stumble over each other to enter the Bitcoin market and drag up international prices.”
The digital currency has come a long way since 2010, when the purchase of the two Papa Johns pizzas by Laszlo Hanyecz from another bitcoin enthusiast marked what is believed to be the first "real-world" bitcoin transaction.
He posted on the Bitcoin Talk forum on May 22, 2010, writing (emphasis ours):
"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. 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!
"I like things like onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, pepperoni, etc.. just standard stuff no weird fish topping or anything like that. I also like regular cheese pizzas which may be cheaper to prepare or otherwise acquire.
"If you're interested please let me know and we can work out a deal."
10,000 coins were then worth around $40 (£30). A British user agreed to buy the pizza for him, and even at the time the buyer got a good deal out of it: They only paid $25 (£19) for the two pizzas.
The date is a marked on an annual basis by Bitcoin users as "Bitcoin Pizza Day."
Today, those 10,000 bitcoins are worth around $20,500,000 (£15,800,000).
The #Bitcoin pizza is worth $20,509,958 today. (-0.15% from yesterday) Today is Bitcoin pizza day!
— Bitcoin Pizza 🍕 (@bitcoin_pizza) May 22, 2017
"It wasn't like Bitcoins had any value back then, so the idea of trading them for a pizza was incredibly cool," Hanyecz told The New York Times in 2013. "No one knew it was going to get so big."
