Yes, you absolutely could have bought Bitcoin in 2010, but it was difficult and involved early methods like peer-to-peer trades on forums (Bitcointalk), primitive exchanges (Bitcoin Market), or even free bitcoin faucets, with prices starting fractions of a cent, making even tiny purchases potentially worth millions later.
Remember the guy who made the first real-world bitcoin transaction in 2010? He paid 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas. The coins were worth about $40 then, and more than $1.24 billion when Bitcoin's price went over $124,000 for the first time in August 2025.
In 2010, Bitcoin was worth $0.08, Apple stock was $50, and an iPhone 4 cost $700. With $700, you could either buy 8750 Bitcoin, 14 Apple shares or one iPhone 4. If you had invested in 8750 Bitcoin, your investment would now be worth $893 million.
If you invested $1,000 in Bitcoin in 2010, your holdings could be worth around $1.76 billion today, based on a conservative estimate of 20,000 BTC and the current price of $87,948.37.
I bought Bitcoin in 2010 and forgot — is it still recoverable? Only if you still have access to the wallet file or private key. If not, the Bitcoin is likely lost permanently.
Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer and early Bitcoin miner, famously traded 10,000 Bitcoin for two Papa John's pizzas on May 22, 2010, marking the first documented commercial transaction for physical goods with cryptocurrency, a day now celebrated as "Bitcoin Pizza Day". At the time, the Bitcoins were worth only about $41, but the value of those coins would later grow to be worth hundreds of millions, even over a billion dollars, making it one of history's most expensive pizzas.
Bitcoin first made its debut for trading at the beginning of July 2010 at a price of $0.0008 per token. That's just eight-hundredths of a penny. If we make the hypothetical assumption that there were no transaction fees, a $100 investment on its debut day could have purchased 125,000 Bitcoin.
2011 – 2012: $1 to $13.50
In 2011, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) accepted BTC for donations for a few months, but quickly backtracked due to a lack of a legal framework for virtual currencies. In February of 2011, BTC reached $1.00 for the first time, achieving parity with the U.S. dollar.
Investing $100 in Bitcoin about 10 years ago (around late 2015/early 2016) would have turned that initial amount into tens of thousands of dollars, potentially over $30,000, given Bitcoin's massive growth from roughly $300-$400 per coin to over $100,000 by late 2025/early 2026, though exact value depends on the specific purchase price and current market fluctuations, representing an astronomical return but also highlighting Bitcoin's extreme volatility.
Key Takeaways. The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property, meaning that when you buy, sell or exchange it, this counts as a taxable event and typically results in either a capital gain or loss. When you earn income from cryptocurrency activities, this is taxed as ordinary income.
When Palihapitiya's op-ed was published on May 30, 2013, the average Bitcoin price was $128.80. If you had taken his advice on the day and invested $10,000 in Bitcoin when it was priced at $128.80, your portfolio would now be worth $9.16 million — a staggering return of more than 91,500%.
There are now an estimated 241,700 individuals with crypto holdings worth $1 million or more, up 40% from last year, according to Henley & Partners and New World Wealth. There are 450 crypto centimillionaires, or those with crypto holdings of $100 million or more, and 36 crypto billionaires, according to the report.
In 2010, wallet options were extremely limited. The original Bitcoin-Qt client developed by Satoshi Nakamoto was the primary wallet software, requiring users to download the entire blockchain. Paper wallets and "brain wallets" (memorized private keys) were also used.
If you bought $100 of Bitcoin when Coinbase was founded in June 2012, it would now be worth about $1,500,000. If you kept the $100 USD you'd only be able to purchase about $73 worth of goods today.
If you invested $1,000 in Bitcoin in 2010, depending on the exact date and current prices (early 2026 estimates), your investment would have grown astronomically, potentially reaching hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, showcasing Bitcoin's immense growth from fractions of a cent to a major asset, though with significant volatility and risk.
Bitcoin Market was announced on Bitcointalk in 2010 and it launched the same year, offering a floating exchange rate for bitcoin. Buyers could purchase bitcoin by sending another user U.S. dollars via PayPal while Bitcoin Market would hold the seller's bitcoin in escrow until the seller received their money.
Thus, if you had invested $100 in Bitcoin in 2010, you could have obtained around 142,857 BTC. At a current price of around $45,500 per Bitcoin, that investment would now be worth approximately $6.5 billion.
The first notable retail transaction involving physical goods was paid on May 22, 2010, by exchanging 10,000 mined BTC for two pizzas delivered from a Papa John's in Jacksonville, Florida.
But does Laszlo Hanyecz still hold Bitcoins today? There has been no record of him holding any bitcoins of great worth publicly. Laszlo Hanyecz's net worth is not publicly known. Laszlo Hanyecz today lives in seclusion.