Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day: Major milestones in the cryptocurrency

Holidays are, obviously, something to look forward to. And aside from the official ones, people around the world have created more, from the serious (National Poultry Day, Astronomy Day), to the middling (No Socks Day, Lost and Found Day), to the downright weird (Annoy Squidward Day, Plan Your Epitaph Day).

For cryptocurrency enthusiasts, there are holidays dedicated to Bitcoin. Today, May 22, is Bitcoin Pizza Day, which marks the day in 2010 when a man from Florida, Laszlo Hanyecz, agreed to pay 10,000 Bitcoin for the delivery of two Papa John’s pizzas.

At that time, those Bitcoins were worth about $41. And though Mr Hanyecz never regretted his decision – it was “incredibly cool” to trade them for pizzas, he said – that amount is now worth, as of Wednesday’s price, more than $1 billion. Ouch.

Bitcoin Pizza Day is one holiday out of dozens dedicated to the cryptocurrency in a year, with websites dedicated to them. Here, we picked out some of the most interesting ones from each month. We reckon these are more of milestones than holidays, since, apparently, it's work as usual.

Also today, Bitcoin surpassed $110,000 for the first time, heading towards another record high. The cryptocurrency climbed as much as 2.2 per cent in early Asian trading on Thursday to hit $110,707, before paring gains, according to Bloomberg.

January 19, 2019: Lightning Torch Day

January is quite eventful for Bitcoin: creator Satoshi Nakamoto – the name used by the unknown person or group behind the currency – started Bitcoin's ledger on January 3 and the crypto was released on January 9, but Lightning Torch Day was on January 19.

On that day, a Twitter user, hodlonaut, began a promotional test of the payment protocol Lightning Network by sending 100,000 satoshis (the smallest unit of the currency, worth about 0.001 Bitcoin) to a trusted recipient. As part of the test, each recipient was asked to add 10,000 satoshis – $0.34 at the time – to send to the next trusted recipient.

That “lightning torch” payment chain reached notable personalities including Lightning Labs boss Elizabeth Stark, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and then-Binance chief Changpeng Zhao.

February 19, 2021: Trillion-Dollar Day

This was the day that Bitcoin's market capitalisation hit the $1 trillion mark, a remarkable achievement for the highly volatile, pessimism-inducing asset. That has only grown exponentially since: as of Thursday, its market cap is sitting at more than $2.21 trillion.

There's also another pizza day in this month – eight years after his first pizza Bitcoin purchase, Mr Hanyecz was back at it with the first real-world Bitcoin purchase, this time over the Lightning Network.

March 3, 2017: Gold Parity Day

The date Bitcoin's price caught up to the price of gold, with both at about $1,200 is known as Gold Parity Day.

Bitcoin – and crypto in general – are being touted as the next safe-haven asset after gold, which is a famous hedge against inflation and economic volatility. Since this day, gold, at its recent peak, has tripled in value, while Bitcoin has rocketed nearly 8,500 per cent.

Also worth noting in this month is April 28, when Bitcoin's market cap crossed the billion-dollar mark.

April 23, 2011: Satoshi Nakamoto disappears (and his birthday)

Satoshi Nakamoto – the pseudonymous creator of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency Bitcoin – sent out a final private post to Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn that said the token was “in good hands”, and that he/she/they has/have moved on to other endeavours, four months after he/she/they were last seen online.

Satoshi Nakamoto's birthday was also in this month, on April 5, 1975, according his/her/their P2P Foundation profile.

May 2, 2013: Bitcoin ATM Day

The very first Bitcoin automated teller machine was installed at Waves, a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. It had a built-in palm scanner, which was designed to prevent users from processing more than C$3,000 in a day.

Europe got its first Bitcoin ATM in December 2013, while the US waited until February 2014.

As of May, there are 38,299 Bitcoin ATMs around the world, according to Statista Research.

June 9, 2021: 'Bitcoin Legalised in El Salvador Day'

El Salvador's parliament voted to make Bitcoin legal tender in the Central American nation, marking a significant milestone. Its first real-world use would come 90 days later on September 7.

The only other country where the cryptocurrency is legal tender is the Central African Republic, where it was approved in 2022. Making crypto legal tender is difficult, given all the uncertainty and scepticism.

The country most likely legalise Bitcoin next is Paraguay, according to a poll on CoinMarketCap. The UAE, in that same study, is listed as the ninth most likely.

July 9, 2016: The second halve

On this day, the second Bitcoin halving happened. Halving involves a change in the token’s underlying blockchain technology that is designed to reduce the rate at which new Bitcoins are created. The block reward dropped from 25 Bitcoin to 12.5 Bitcoin per block.

Halving – which takes place every four years – has long been touted as a positive catalyst for cryptocurrency prices since it reduces supply of new tokens from the blockchain.

The third halving happened on March 14, 2024; the fourth is expected in 2028.

August 1, 2017: Bitcoin Independence Day

August 1, 2017, marked the end of the Blocksize Wars, which was a technical debate on the scaling of the Bitcoin blockchain.

It was a heated argument on several issues, including on who should control the Bitcoin protocol, how much value should be decentralised and the longer-term plan for the Bitcoin market.

The endgame came when Bitcoin users “demonstrated their independence from miner control” by deploying a software upgrade that bypassed miners who were not co-operating, essentially sending a message that users, not miners or companies, controlled Bitcoin rules.

September 2, 2014: Opendime makes its debut

This day marked the launch of Opendime, a Bitcoin bearer instrument.

According to Investopedia, a bearer instrument, or bearer bond, is a type of fixed-income security issued in physical form to the purchaser in which no ownership information is recorded.

Or, as capital markets firm CoinShares explains, whoever controls the private keys assigned to the coins is the effective owner of the Bitcoin.

October 31, 2008: Bitcoin Whitepaper Day

This is the day Satoshi Nakamoto revealed the Bitcoin whitepaper to the world through a cryptography mailing list.

In it, Satoshi Nakamoto touted Bitcoin's “several important properties”, pointing out that double-spending is prevented by peer-to-peer networks; that it has no mint or other trusted parties; that participants can be anonymous; and several other technical aspects that boiled down to the ultimate point: cryptocurrencies are safer than traditional forms of finance.

It was probably the ultimate successful pitch, considering how crypto proponents ran with it and the market exploded.

November 28, 2013: Haters in Disbelief Day

The day Bitcoin broke the $1,000 mark – confounding the critics as it was a feat that, at the time, wasn't thought possible.

Now, with Bitcoin having breezed past $100,000, we wonder where all the haters are (there are no statistics for Bitcoin converts).

December 13, 2010: La Fuga – Satoshi Nakamoto signs off

This was the day Satoshi Nakamoto marked his/her/their final online appearance, last being active at 4.45pm ET, a day after the Bitcoin creator sent a final public message.

This further fuelled speculation on Satoshi Nakamoto's true identity; there are also a number of others who are suspected to be the creator of Bitcoin. One thing is certain: when that identity is revealed, it will be on this list.