Bitcoin Pizza Day rewind: A homage to weird and wonderful BTC purchases

Published at: May 22, 2022

Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day! Before you dial for a Margherita to commemorate the world’s first real-world Bitcoin transaction, here’s a slice of trivia:

What do a family holiday to Japan, a 50 Cent album, a steak dinner and a framed cat photo have in common?

They were all paid for with Bitcoin (BTC) by members of the Cointelegraph Bitcoin community! And just like the Bitcoin pizzas that cost 10,000 BTC, which are now worth more than $300 million, the community’s Bitcoin purchases have also skyrocketed.

Benjamin de Waal, the vice president of engineering at Bitcoin exchange Swan Bitcoin, told Cointelegraph, “I spent 7 BTC on a family trip to Japan a few years back.” In terms of its present value, 7 BTC is worth well over $200,000 — but de Waal’s happy because his kids are happy:

“It would have been worth a lot more now, but I don’t regret it at all. A good childhood full of adventure, fun and learning is priceless.”

Felix Crisan, the scammer vigilante, told Cointelegraph how he once spent 50 BTC (worth $1.5 million) developing a new software module for his company in 2015. Crisan added that in 2016:

“Let's not forget some almost 1BTC 'spent' betting who the next US president's going to be. [...] Of course, I didn't win.”

That’s a $30,000 bet at BTC’s current market price.

Jeffrey Albus, an editor at Cointelegraph, shared that he splashed out on a steak dinner to demonstrate Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer capabilities “sometime in 2011 or early 2012.”

“We paid 15 BTC — 12 for the meal plus 3 BTC left as a tip (which the waitress probably threw away).”

Worse still, the value of 15 BTC over 10 years ago was so small that it fell short of the total bill — Albus had to top it up with good old greenbacks. The value of the Bitcoiner-appropriate steak dinner is now worth shy of half a million dollars.

In a word to the wise, Julien Liniger, CEO of Swiss Bitcoin exchange Relai as well as a Bitcoin maximalist through and through, told Cointelegraph that he “bought a Bitcoin hoodie for 0.1 BTC back in the days, but that was the last thing” — a roughly $3,000 hoodie. He explained that “It then became too stupid of a thing to me to spend instead of stack sats.”

Meanwhile, the team at CoinCorner — the United Kingdom Bitcoin exchange behind a contactless Lightning Network payment card — shared a few stories. Danny Scott, the CEO, bought the 50 Cent album Animal Ambition with Bitcoin when the market price was around $600. 50 Cent famously “forgot” he accepted 700 BTC for the album. Let’s hope Scott forgets the missed gains, too!

“Molly Spiers, CoinCorner's head of marketing, told Cointelegraph, “I bought a photo postcard of my cats [...] for 0.009 BTC.” The $270 postcard was sadly not enough for Spiers to keep a hold of: "I've lost them somewhere over the years — I'd have framed them with pride!”

Fortunately, there are “no regrets,” as it does “make for a good story.” Plus, she shared a picture of the cats:

Matthew Ward, CoinCorner’s software developer, told Cointelegraph that while “experimenting with Bitcoin as a currency,” he “bought the game Cities Skylines back when it launched on Steam in March 2015 for 0.108 BTC.” You can be the judge of whether the graphics merit a $3,000 price tag:

Finally, Didi Taihuttu, known as the father of the Bitcoin Family and sometimes the Bitcoin tattoo guy, spent 2.75 BTC on a Bitcoin miner in 2014. Taihuttu told Cointelegraph that “The strangest part is that when BTC hit around $200, I gave up mining BTC and started to mine Dogecoin.” Had he held the BTC, he would have over $180,000.

Taihuttu also shared that during his adventures as head of the Bitcoin Family, he’s parted with over 9 BTC ($270,000), which he describes as “losing 9 BTC but gaining an amazing adventure.”

And for those wondering what happened to the 10,000 BTC Hanyecz spent on the pizzas, according to Cointelegraph research, 5% of the total landed in a very wealthy wallet, while “some of the funds were seemingly liquidated” on a failed crypto exchange.

The wealthy wallet that chowed down on some of Hanyecz’s BTC is in the top 15 wealthiest wallets in Bitcoin, accumulating over 53,000 BTC. The total spent or sent from the wallet is 0 BTC — a certified Bitcoin hodler.