Have you ever wondered how Bitcoin, as a virtual currency, initially gained value and proved its “real-world worth”? To answer this question, we must mention two important dates: one is the first time Bitcoin was priced, and the other is the famous Bitcoin Pizza Day.

In fact, after Bitcoin was created in 2009, it had no market price for quite a long time. At that time, the whole concept of digital currency was met with skepticism by society. Only a small group of tech geeks were attracted to Bitcoin’s philosophy and participated in mining.

The first time Bitcoin was truly given a price was in January 2010. On the early Bitcoin forum BitcoinTalk, a user named “dwdollar” expressed his desire to create a brand-new marketplace where Bitcoin could be freely traded. Then, on March 17, 2010, the first digital currency exchange was born. At launch, Bitcoin was priced at $0.003—marking the first time it had a unified market value.

However, a price alone couldn't prove Bitcoin’s intrinsic value. The real test of its usability came two months later through a social experiment—now known as Bitcoin Pizza Day.

Back on May 18, 2010, still on the BitcoinTalk forum, a programmer named Laszlo posted that he wanted to buy pizza using Bitcoin. His exact words were: “I want to buy 2 large pizzas, and I’ll pay 10,000 Bitcoins for them. The pizzas can be homemade or store-bought, but I need them delivered to my door like a hotel room service. I like onions, peppers, sausage, and mushrooms. No weird fish toppings!”

Unfortunately, the post didn't gain much attention at first. It took six hours before it received the first reply. Over the next three days, some users viewed the post, but very few asked for his address. Most comments were skeptical or mocking. Even Laszlo started to doubt, asking: “Does nobody want to buy me pizza? Is the amount of Bitcoin I’m offering too low?”

Finally, at 5:17 PM on May 22, 2010, after four days of waiting, Laszlo posted that the transaction was successful. He wrote: “Just wanted to let you guys know I successfully traded 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas. Thanks, jercos!” and even posted a picture of the pizzas.

This marked the first physical transaction in Bitcoin’s history. Since then, Bitcoin's price has skyrocketed. To commemorate this event, May 22 is now celebrated annually as Bitcoin Pizza Day.

Although those two pizzas would be worth $160 million at Bitcoin’s peak price—possibly the most expensive pizzas in history—it was this transaction that demonstrated Bitcoin's real utility and fulfilled Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system.”