The 10,000 bitcoins used to buy two pizzas in 2010 are now worth well above 1 trillion won, renewing attention on changes in bitcoin’s purchasing power and supply structure.

On May 22, local time, blockchain outlet Cryptopolitan reported that Binance, marking Bitcoin Pizza Day in 2026, summarised bitcoin’s shrinking supply, expanding global purchasing power and rising institutional holdings.

Bitcoin Pizza Day commemorates a transaction in which programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas with 10,000 bitcoins on May 22, 2010. The deal was worth about $41 at the time, and bitcoin’s market value was below $1 million. The same amount is now well above $700 million, or about 1 trillion won. When bitcoin hit a record high of $126,000 in August 2025, it was worth more than $1 billion.

Bitcoin’s new supply is shrinking through halving cycles. Daily issuance is now about 450 BTC, meaning 10,000 BTC equals more than 22 days of issuance. On Pizza Day, daily issuance was 7,200 BTC, and it is expected to fall to 225 BTC after the next halving, projected for April 2028.

The share of mined supply has also risen quickly. On Pizza Day, only about 14 percent of total supply had been mined. It was about 53 percent in 2013, when bitcoin first topped $100; about 80 percent in November 2017, when it reached $10,000; and more than 94 percent in December 2024, when it hit $100,000. More than 94 percent of total supply is now in circulation.

The current purchasing power of 10,000 BTC was also illustrated through examples from major cities. In Mumbai, it was presented as enough to buy tens of millions of cups of tea and large commercial property. In Dubai, it was described as enough for more than 12 million shawarmas and dozens of ultra-luxury villas on Palm Jumeirah. In New York, it was compared with about 22 million slices of pizza and more than 3,000 studio apartments in Manhattan; in London, more than 8 million pints of pub beer and several townhouses in some boroughs; and in Tokyo, millions of plates of sushi, thousands of trips on Japan’s high-speed rail and the purchase of some floors of an apartment building in the city centre.

Institutional holdings are also expanding. Institutions hold about 3.88 million BTC, or 18.5 percent of the 21 million cap. Of that, listed companies hold about 1.24 million BTC, or 5.9 percent, and ETFs hold about 1.32 million BTC, or 6.3 percent. BlackRock’s IBIT holds about 811,000 BTC, the largest share among ETFs. Governments hold about 650,000 BTC.

Pure institutional holdings, excluding DeFi and other protocol holdings, were estimated at about 3.5 million BTC. That is about 1 in every 6 bitcoins. Some 197 listed companies hold about 1.24 million BTC, and about half of corporate accumulation over the past 12 months was added during that period.