thestreet.com
The history of digital assets is famously topped with pepperoni.
On May 22, 2010, a developer named Laszlo Hanyecz made the first commercial Bitcoin transaction by trading 10,000 BTC for two Papa John’s pizzas.
At the time, those coins were worth about $41. Today, as Bitcoin hits record highs, those same pizzas would be worth a staggering $739 million, approximately.
In a refreshing nod to this legacy, Mastercard recently took to the streets to show that while the prices have changed, the process is getting much simpler.
In a video shared on X, Ben Fox Rubin and Sebastian Oddo of Mastercard visited a small business to settle a pizza bill using a cryptocurrency.
The invisible bridge for small business
For many shop owners, the idea of "accepting crypto" sounds like a technical headache.
However, Mastercard is proving that the experience can be seamless.
As Sebastian Oddo, Vice President, Global Digital Marketing Innovation, Mastercard, explained in the video, a crypto card is simply tied to a digital wallet but acts like any other card at the register.
"Nothing changes for the small business. Everything stays the same," Oddo noted.
Behind the scenes, the digital assets power the transaction and are converted into U.S. dollars before they reach the merchant.
This means the business doesn’t have to worry about the complexity of the blockchain; they simply receive the payment in a way they already understand.
A global movement for maturity
This pizza run serves as a fun demonstration of a much larger strategy.
On March 11, 2026, the company officially launched the Mastercard Crypto Partner Program.
This initiative brings together more than 85 partners—including big names like Circle, Ripple, Ava Labs, Aptos and MetaMask—to turn technical innovation into everyday tools.
The program focuses on real-world needs like B2B money transfers and cross-border payments.
By connecting the speed of digital assets with the trust of established card networks, Mastercard is helping to shape a future where the "crypto" label eventually disappears, and digital money simply becomes "money."
As digital assets enter this new phase, the goal is practical execution.
By bridging the gap between new tech and everyday commerce, Mastercard is ensuring that the future of payments works perfectly with the systems that are already in place.