Tyler Winklevoss Shares His “Bitcoin Pizza Moment” Going to Space

Billionaire bitcoin investor Tyler Winkelvoss may have bought the world’s most expensive trip into space. 

Winklevoss, who co-founded the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini alongside his twin brother Cameron, purchased a ticket to space in January 2014 on-board Virgin Galactic’s passenger-carrying spaceship. The ticket cost him $250,000 at the time, which he paid for with 312.5 BTC. 

It’s one year since our second flight to space. That test saw SpaceShipTwo travel at more than three times the speed of sound out of the Earth’s atmosphere with three crew on board. It was also the catalyst for us to transition spaceline operations to Spaceport America, NM pic.twitter.com/qhgeHuc5WJ

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) February 22, 2020

Winklevoss’s bitcoin spent on the space ride would be worth more than $3 million at today’s price, up from when BTC was trading for under $1,000 in early 2014. The Gemini co-founder called the trip his “Bitcoin Pizza moment,” in a reference to bitcoin’s infamous first public transaction for physical goods. 

In May 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz offered users on the BitcoinTalk forum 10,000 BTC in exchange for two pizzas. Jeremy Sturdivant, under the screenname Jercos, accepted Hanyecz’s offer and sent him two pizzas from PapaJohn’s in exchange for the bitcoin. While the transaction appeared minuscule to users at the time, the bitcoin would be worth more than $97 million at today’s market price.

Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com