It's another year, 522.

On Gate Square, people are everywhere showing off their pizzas. Businesses are hosting events, airdrops, discounts, stickers, gift boxes—it's lively like New Year’s. The community is buzzing, as if everyone is celebrating that “most expensive takeout.”

But I’ve noticed a particularly absurd phenomenon:

Everyone is buying pizza with USDT, with ETH, even with platform tokens.
Only no one is buying pizza with Bitcoin.

Isn’t that ironic?

For the Bitcoin Pizza Day event, everyone tacitly avoids paying with Bitcoin.

I asked a guy at the event who was getting a free pizza: “Why aren’t you paying with BTC?”
He paused, then asked back, “Are you crazy? BTC is for HODLing, not for spending.”

I also asked an old hand who posted a picture of his pizza: “What did you use to buy that pizza?”
He sent back a smiley face: “USDT, who would use BTC? The fees are enough for me to buy another slice.”

See, this is the 522 paradox:

We commemorate someone who bought pizza with Bitcoin.
But none of us dare to repeat his act.

Why?

Because those 10,000 bitcoins are like a mountain pressing on everyone’s mind.
“Spending each Bitcoin right now is a second insult to Laszlo.”
“The 0.001 BTC you spend today might be a house ten years from now.”

We shout HODL with our mouths, but our bodies honestly switch back to stablecoins when checking out.

BTC won in store value, but lost in circulation.
Won in candlestick charts, but lost in scenarios.
Won in narrative, but lost in original intent.

Satoshi wanted to create “digital cash.”
We turned it into “digital gold bars”—locked in cold wallets, off-limits, any touch a sin.

So this year, 522, I’m not buying pizza.

I’ll just sit here and watch.

Watch who dares to be the first to pay with Bitcoin.
Watch when this industry will truly “spend Bitcoin” instead of “hoarding Bitcoin.”