Bitcoin surpasses the $100,000 barrier for the first time.

Bitcoin has surpassed the $100,000 barrier for the first time. Around 9:39 PM ET tonight, the value of the cryptocurrency reached six digits, marking a milestone in its nearly 16-year history. This event also implies that the famous pizza purchase with Bitcoin is now valued at $1 billion.

For those unfamiliar, a man from Florida—predictably—paid 10,000 BTC for two Papa John’s pizzas more than 14 years ago, becoming the first known commercial transaction of the cryptocurrency. In a cryptocurrency forum, Laszlo Hanyecz posted on May 18, 2010: “I will pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas... maybe 2 large ones so I have some leftovers for the next day.” Four days later, a Brit accepted his offer. At that time, that amount was only worth $45 (and the man in the UK only paid $25 to Papa John’s). However, just nine months later, the value of that transaction had risen to $10,000.

In 2013, Hanyecz stated that he did not regret his pizza order, which was then worth $6 million. He remarked that at that moment, "it wasn't like bitcoins had any value, so the idea of exchanging them for a pizza was incredibly cool." “No one knew it would grow so much.”

It is interesting to wonder if that man from Florida feels differently now that the cost of those two Papa John’s pizzas is worth a billion dollars. In comparison, the current market capitalization of Papa John’s is $1.567 billion. Therefore, if Hanyecz had held onto his cryptocurrency instead of ordering the pizzas, he could have bought almost two-thirds of the company that baked his order today.

Additionally, there is the story of a writer who in 2017 helped a friend recover $200,000 in Bitcoin from a damaged laptop. Those 40 Bitcoins, which were held in a MultiBit wallet for three and a half years, are now worth over $4 million, as long as the cryptocurrency remains above the $100,000 mark.