Jeremy Sturdivant, known online as jercos, received 10,000 bitcoin in May 2010 as payment for a pizza transaction. That early trade became a landmark moment in crypto history, later dubbed "Bitcoin Pizza Day." At bitcoin's 2021 peak around $126,000 per coin, those 10,000 BTC would have been worth approximately $1.26 billion.
Sturdivant spent the bitcoins on a US road trip rather than holding them long-term. The decision to liquidate such a massive position early in bitcoin's history stands in stark contrast to the hodling culture that dominates modern crypto communities. Had Sturdivant maintained his position through 2021, he would have ranked among bitcoin's wealthiest holders.
The pizza transaction itself occurred on January 12, 2012, when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz offered 10,000 BTC to anyone willing to purchase and deliver two Papa John's pizzas to him in Florida. Sturdivant accepted the offer, completing what became the first known commercial transaction using bitcoin. At the time, bitcoin traded around $0.003 per coin, making the 10,000 BTC worth approximately $30.
Pizza Day has evolved into an annual celebration within the crypto community, marking May 22 each year. The event serves as a humbling reminder of bitcoin's price trajectory over the past decade. The original transaction highlighted both bitcoin's utility as a medium of exchange and the astronomical wealth creation potential that early adopters experienced.
Sturdivant's willingness to spend his holdings demonstrates the currency mindset of bitcoin's earliest users. Rather than viewing the asset purely as a speculative investment, early participants treated it as functional money. This contrasts sharply with contemporary bitcoin narratives that emphasize HODL strategies and wealth accumulation.
The incident underscores how difficult it remains to identify transformative assets in real-time. Most market participants fail to recognize paradigm-shifting technologies before explosive price appreciation occurs.