I happened to see people discussing the story of Bitcoin Pizza Day, and it reminded me that many people only remember Laszlo Hanyecz spending 10,000 BTC to buy pizza, but very few people have actually bothered to learn the story of the other main character.

As it happens, on May 22, 2010, the person who accepted the transaction was a young man named Jeremy Sturdivant, who was only 19 at the time. He saw Laszlo’s exchange request on the Bitcoin forum and agreed to the deal right away. Back then, Bitcoin was still in its infancy, and nobody really took it seriously, so Jeremy simply took those 10,000 BTC and exchanged them for two Papa John’s pizzas.

What’s interesting is that Laszlo later became known for this transaction, and people kept saying he “wasted” Bitcoin worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But what about Jeremy? After he got those coins, he didn’t clutch them like later HODLers. He used them up—more precisely, he traded them away. Because in that era, nobody really treated Bitcoin as a store of value; it was used more like an experimental currency. Jeremy also said in an interview that he never regretted spending those coins, because at that time Bitcoin’s value was basically negligible.

Looking back now, Jeremy’s role in crypto history has been greatly underestimated. He represents that early group of Bitcoin users—not doing it for hype, but actually using it to transact. Without someone like Jeremy who was willing to accept BTC payments, how could Bitcoin possibly evolve into the global phenomenon it is today?

An interesting contrast is that Laszlo became a Bitcoin celebrity because of this transaction, while Jeremy chose to stay low-key. He was still interested in crypto technology, but he preferred to work behind the scenes. This actually reflects two different ways of participating—one gets remembered by history, while the other quietly drives history forward.

Every time I see a topic about Bitcoin Pizza Day, I think of this detail. Laszlo Hanyecz’s story is always used as a textbook example of “missing out on wealth,” but Jeremy’s story is actually more meaningful—he shows the pure participation spirit in the early Bitcoin ecosystem. Both left their mark on Bitcoin history, but in completely different ways. The next time you bring up this story, don’t just remember the person who bought the pizza—also think about the one who sold it.