Bitcoin price breaks the $100,000 barrier for the first time<p>Bitcoin has passed the $100,000 threshold for the first time. At approximately 9:39PM ET this evening, the cryptocurrency’s value <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BTC-USD/">hit six figures[/url], moving it past the milestone for the first time in its nearly 16-year history. As of the morning of December 5th, the price has stayed well above that $100,000 mark, and Bitcoin's value has generally been steadily increasing over the past month or so. That's no guarantee it'll stay where it is, but it's clearly having a moment.</p>
<p>That also means the legendary <a data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1" class="no-affiliate-link" href="
https://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoin-pizza-day-celebrating-20-million-pizza-order/" data-original-link="
https://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoin-pizza-day-celebrating-20-million-pizza-order/">Bitcoin pizza order[/url] is now worth $1 billion. For those not in the loop, a Florida man — because, of course it was a Florida man — paid 10,000 BTC for two Papa John’s pizzas over 14 years ago in what’s considered the cryptocurrency’s first commercial transaction.</p>
<span id="end-legacy-contents"></span><p>“I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas … like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day,” Laszlo Hanyecz <a data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1" class="no-affiliate-link" href="
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.msg1195" data-original-link="
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.msg1195">posted[/url] in a crypto forum on May 18, 2010. Four days later, a British man took him up on the offer. That amount was only worth $45 at the time. (And the UK man only paid Papa John’s $25!) But only nine months later, the transaction’s value had skyrocketed to $10,000.</p>
<p>Hanyecz <a data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:4;pos:1" class="no-affiliate-link" href="
https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/disruptions-betting-on-bitcoin/" data-original-link="
https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/disruptions-betting-on-bitcoin/">told[/url]
The New York Times in 2013 that he had no regrets about the then-$6 million pizza order. “It wasn’t like Bitcoins had any value back then, so the idea of trading them for a pizza was incredibly cool,” he said. “No one knew it was going to get so big.”</p>
<p>I wonder if Florida Man has any regrets now that his fee for those two Papa John’s pizzas is worth a billion dollars.</p>
<p>Looking at it another way, Papa John’s <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PZZA/">current market cap is $1.567 billion[/url]. So, had Hanyecz saved his crypto instead of ordering those two pizzas, he could have bought nearly two-thirds of the company that baked his pie today.</p>
<p>Then, there’s the story of a writer who, in 2017, helped a friend recover (at the time) <a data-i13n="cpos:6;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/2017-12-05-how-not-to-store-your-bitcoins.html">$200,000 worth of Bitcoin from a broken laptop[/url]. Those 40 Bitcoins stuck in a MultiBit wallet for three-and-a-half years are worth more than $4 million today (so long as the cryptocurrency stays above the $100,000 mark).</p>
<p><strong>Update, 10:35AM ET: </strong>This story has been updated with details about Bitcoin's current value after it hit the $100,000 mark. </p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/computing/bitcoin-price-breaks-the-100000-barrier-for-the-first-time-042918884.html?src=rssSource:
Bitcoin price breaks the $100,000 barrier for the first time
