You know what's wild? Exactly 16 years ago today, a 19-year-old guy named Jeremy Sturdivant made a decision that would haunt him forever. He was just trying to help a fellow bitcoiner get some pizza.

So here's what happened. Back in May 2010, this guy Laszlo Hanyecz posted on Bitcointalk offering 10,000 BTC for two large pizzas delivered to his place in Jacksonville, Florida. At the time, that was like $41. Jeremy, going by the nickname Jercos, saw the post and actually went ahead and called Papa John's from California to order the pizzas, paid with his debit card, and had them shipped across the country. Laszlo sent him 10,000 BTC for the favor.

That's how Bitcoin Pizza Day started. Pretty straightforward transaction, right? Except... well, if Jeremy Sturdivant had held onto those coins instead of immediately selling them to cover a trip with his girlfriend, he'd be looking at around $770 million today. That's not a typo. At current prices hovering around $77K per BTC, that 10,000 coin haul would make his net worth absolutely astronomical.

Years later, Jeremy admitted he regrets it. But here's the thing - he was honest about his thinking back then. He wasn't treating it like an investment. He was just helping out. "It seemed fair to both parties and, well, who doesn't like pizza?" he said in an interview. He didn't see Bitcoin collapsing completely, but he had no clue it would become what it is today.

What gets me is how he frames it now. He's not bitter about the money he left on the table. Instead, he talks about being proud he was part of something that went from an interesting project to a global phenomenon. That's actually pretty mature given what could have been.

Laszlo, the guy who paid for the pizza with 10,000 BTC, has a similar take. He tries not to dwell on it because there's literally no point. "I mined that Bitcoin and at the time it was like I was getting free food," he told The Telegraph. "I wouldn't have spent $100 million on pizza, right? But if I hadn't done that, maybe Bitcoin wouldn't have become so popular."

So yeah, Pizza Day is a thing now. Every May 22, the crypto community celebrates that moment when Bitcoin went from theoretical to real. It's a reminder that the earliest adopters weren't thinking about getting rich - they were just experimenting with something they believed in. Jeremy Sturdivant's net worth could have been legendary if he'd held, but instead he's got something maybe better: he's part of Bitcoin history.