Bitcoin Shatters $111,000 Barrier on Pizza Day—Proving Crypto Still Eats Traditional Finance for Lunch
Bitcoin just served Wall Street a slice of humble pie—hitting a record $111,000 during its annual Pizza Day celebration. The OG cryptocurrency now costs more than 22 million Papa John’s pepperoni pizzas (the 2010 benchmark, adjusted for inflation).
Fun fact: That’s a 554,999,900% return for the guy who famously traded two pizzas for 10,000 BTC. Meanwhile, hedge funds are still trying to explain their 2% ‘blockbuster’ yields.
Love it or hate it—Bitcoin’s latest ATH proves the digital gold narrative isn’t going stale. Even as traditional finance scoffs, the network keeps baking fresh all-time highs. Bon appétit, bears.
Big Bitcoin Moves
The asset has now gained more than 17% since the beginning of the year and is up around 47% since its April 7 crash to $75,000. Momentum is being driven by institutions as spot exchange-traded funds and corporations continue to aggressively accumulate the asset.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States have seen six consecutive trading days of inflows totalling more than $2 billion. Meanwhile, companies such as Michael Saylor’s Strategy and Japanese investment firm Metaplanet continue to scoop up BTC for their treasuries.
On May 22, Digital Capital Strategist Jeff Walton said, Strategy is “the apex bitcoin accumulator,” having bought 324,000 BTC in the last 8 months.
“That is 105,000 more Bitcoin than every single company that has BTC on balance sheets combined,” he added.
Strategy’s unrealized profit soared to $23.5 billion with the new Bitcoin all-time high. The stash is now worth an eye-watering $63.7 billion, according to the Saylor Tracker.
Nevertheless, things are relatively quiet on the retail front with macroeconomic clouds darkening, inflation woes increasing, and social sentiment and searches at bear market lows.
Every person who bought Bitcoin and held is in profitpic.twitter.com/621xLJZpau
— HODL15Capital (@HODL15Capital) May 22, 2025
Analyst “CrypNuevo” said that there WOULD be “more to come in the following weeks and months,” predicting that it will reach at least $115,000.
Bitcoin Pizza Day
May 22 is also Bitcoin Pizza Day, and celebrates the first use of the asset to buy something physical. On this day, fifteen years ago, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought 2 Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 BTC.
The cryptocurrency was worth just $0.0041 at the time, making the purchase cost around $40. Today, those pizzas would be valued at around $1.1 billion at current prices.
Hanyecz’s pizza purchase has become a legendary event in the history of Bitcoin, demonstrating how the asset has come in terms of adoption and value.
Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day!
15 years ago, Laszlo Hanyecz, a Floridian programmer, bought 2 Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 $BTC. Today, those pizzas would be valued at over $1.07B today.
Happy #Bitcoin Pizza Day, everyone! pic.twitter.com/H7oeBTEIJM
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) May 22, 2025