Sixteen years ago today, a guy named Laszlo Hanyecz changed crypto history with one simple order. He traded 10,000 $BTC for two Papa John’s pizzas worth about $41. That single transaction in 2010 basically kicked off what we now call Bitcoin’s real-world value story.
Back then each bitcoin was around four tenths of a cent. Fast forward and those same 10,000 coins would have been worth roughly $690 million in 2024. They hit a wild peak of $1.26 billion last year when $BTC touched its all-time high around $126k. Right now in 2026 they’re still sitting at over $770 million with bitcoin trading near $77,360.
It is wild to see how far this has come even while the bears are running the show lately. Makes you think about the long game in $ETH and $SOL too.