London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Oct 19, 2025

Bitcoin's record-breaking surge means one man ended up paying £440m for two pizzas

Bitcoin's record-breaking surge means one man ended up paying £440m for two pizzas

Saturday's spike came exactly one year after the volatile cryptocurrency lost 50% of its value in the space of two days.

Bitcoin has surged to a new all-time high - with prices breaking £44,000 for the first time.

Saturday's spike came exactly one year after the volatile cryptocurrency lost 50% of its value in the space of two days and fell to £2,873. It has risen 1,431% in the past 12 months.

Bitcoin now finds itself in uncharted territory. While some analysts believe the digital asset could reach £70,000 this year, others fear that dramatic sell-offs could be on the horizon.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has warned people who buy Bitcoin should be prepared to lose all of their money


Part of the cryptocurrency's popularity lies in how its supply is fixed at 21 million, with new coins set to be gradually released between now and 2140.

Supporters claim this helps create scarcity - in contrast to traditional currencies such as the US dollar, where supplies have increased dramatically as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tesla helped ignite interest in Bitcoin when the electric vehicle manufacturer announced it had invested $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in the cryptocurrency last month.

Estimates suggest that Elon Musk's company has already made more profit from this investment in a month than it did by selling cars across the whole of 2020.

But critics have accused Tesla of tarnishing its eco-friendly image, amid concerns over the impact that Bitcoin has on the environment.

Research from Digiconomist suggests that the cryptocurrency's annual carbon footprint is comparable to the whole of Slovakia, a country with a population of 5.5 million people. The electricity it takes to complete a single Bitcoin transaction would also be enough to power an average American household for 25 days.

Elon Musk has written many tweets endorsing Bitcoin - with Tesla recently investing $1.5bn


Bitcoin, which launched in 2009, reached a significant milestone last year when PayPal announced it would allow its users to buy, sell and store the cryptocurrency - and use it to make purchases at millions of merchants. The payment giant's crypto service launched in the US last October, and is due to make its debut in the UK later this year.

Last month, Mastercard also announced that it plans to start allowing its customers to make payments using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

But buying stuff using Bitcoin may not be a good idea - for several reasons. The cryptocurrency's network can only handle five transactions per second, while the likes of Visa can handle thousands.

Bitcoin's volatility can also have consequences. Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC in 2010, back when the cryptocurrency was worth pennies. Fast forward to now, and this crypto stash is worth a staggering £440m.

Annually, Bitcoin uses as much electricity as the whole of Chile


The asset's growing price in recent years has turned early adopters into millionaires, but not everyone has been so lucky.

James Howells, from Newport, threw away a hard drive containing 7,500 BTC in 2013, which would be worth £330.2m at today's rates. He has offered to pay the council millions of pounds for the chance to search a landfill site, but his requests have been repeatedly rejected on environmental grounds.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority, 1.9 million Britons owned cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as of last June.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has warned that people who buy Bitcoin should be prepared to lose all of their money - and recently predicted that the cryptocurrency won't last.

Other senior officials, such as European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, have called for Bitcoin to be regulated globally - warning that it is used for "funny business".

Comments

James Pierson 5 year ago
If money can be thought of as monetary energy, the bitcoin network consumes $7.9 Bn USD in equivalent electrical energy in one year while the US prints $11 Billion USD in fiat currency every single day....let THAT sink in ......
James Pierson 5 year ago
Bitcoin detractors love to bring up the fact that energy is required to provide security for the bitcoin network. Detractors use meaningless comparative metrics such as the "power consumption of Chile" or " the "power consumption of Norway". In Kilowatt hour absolute terms, the Bitcoin network consumes 0.067% of the electrical energy required by the human race to provide to humans with a trustworthy form of money that cannot be corrupted by government, is almost infinitely divisible and can be communicated around the world within seconds at very low cost all within a network that has never been successfully hacked. A true comparison of cost in absolute terms would include the costs of hundreds of thousands of bank branches, offices, the cost of heating, taxes, maintenance, security as well as the energy cost of millions of bank employees hauling their butts back and forth in the execution of their functions. Further, the equivalent energy cost of all gold mining, refining, distribution and storage facilities can be thrown into the mix as well. The energy spent supporting the bitcoin network currently is trivial in comparison the societal cost of our banking and investment infrastructure alone. With the migration of many blockchains from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake; blockchains become hyper-efficient and can support vastly increased speeds in terms of transactions per second with no loss in security. Soon we will not be worrying about how many fiat dollars are needed to buy one bitcoin, the lord knows we have way too many of those already with an ocean more yet to be printed. How much should bulletproof money that cannot simply be printed into existence be worth to us as the human family?

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
×