Bitcoin Pizza Day: Gemini Mines the Pizza Block, Adds Taproot Compatibility, and Releases Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Report Sneak Peek

The ultimate reminder to always HODL your bitcoin has arrived again in the form of the crypto world’s favorite holiday: Bitcoin Pizza Day.

On May 22, 2010, Florida native Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 bitcoin for two Papa John’s pizzas. With bitcoin trading at about $0.004 the time, it cost Hanyecz roughly $40. Not a bad deal. But bitcoin’s subsequent appreciation was not kind to Hanyecz. With one bitcoin now worth more than $110,000, those two Papa John’s pizzas cost Hanyecz more than $1.1 billion at today’s price. Or about $137.5 million per slice.

To honor Hanyecz, who to this day has not confirmed if he still owns any bitcoin, and the national holiday of Bitcoiners everywhere, Gemini has teamed up with mining company Mara to inscribe a slice of bitcoin culture into the blockchain.

The Pizza Block is a visual demonstration of the Bitcoin community on week when the price of bitcoin pushed to an all-time high. Here's a look:

We partnered with MARA to mine "The Pizza Block" - a tribute to Bitcoin's first real world purchase and the culture that keeps it going

Block #897813 pic.twitter.com/KeXH9tV9Aa

— Gemini (@Gemini) May 22, 2025

Gemini Enables Taproot Compatiblity

Our dedication to Bitcoin also extends to our customers. We’ve recently enabled withdrawals from Taproot addresses–each begins with bc1p–for Gemini Exchange and Gemini Custody users.

This update makes Gemini fully compatible with Taproot.

Launched in 2021, Taproot is a Bitcoin network upgrade approved by 90% of miners. It is a soft fork, making it usable with nearly every past version of the Bitcoin network.

Here’s how it benefits Bitcoin users:

• Increased privacy: Complex transactions look simple on the blockchain.
• Improved efficiency: Taproot uses less data, which can lower transaction fees.
• More powerful: Taproot enables smart contract compatibility and technologies like Ordinals, BRC-20 tokens, and potentially FROST-based signing in the future.

If you're withdrawing to a wallet that supports Taproot, you can use your Taproot address when creating a withdrawal. You can also save it to your address book for reuse.

Gemini Report w/Glassnode Shows Centralized Buying is Pushing Bitcoin Market to New Highs

Next month, Gemini will release a report with onchain analytics company Glassnode examining the outsized impact of the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, rival sovereign buying programs, corporate bitcoin treasury adoption, and increased buying from other centralized exchanges.

Here’s a sneak peak of the findings:

• Sovereign treasuries play an outsized role on the market: Whether through dormant holdings (e.g., the U.S., China) or active DCA strategies (e.g., El Salvador, Bhutan), with growing impact on market psychology and stability.
• Volatility has declined across timeframes: Recent bitcoin price cycles have featured more consistent, sustained rallies that appeal to long-term investors.
• How investment in an SBR drives price: For every $1 million invested by the SBR, Bitcoin’s market cap could rise by up to $8 million in the short term during volatile periods, and by around $1.7 million in the long term if held.

Stay tuned for the full report next month.

Go Where Dollars Won’t!
Team Gemini