A piece of notebook paper with the sign “Buy Bitcoin” — famous for appearing on broadcast behind then-United States Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen in 2017 — was sold for 16 
BTC
-3.69%
, or about $1.027 million.
The sign was handed over to the highest bidder, the pseudonymous “Squirrekkywrath,” after a week-long auction Wednesday at the Pubkey Bar in New York. The original “Bitcoin Sign Guy,” Christian Langalis — who posted the auction himself on auction platform Scarce City — also attended the event.
“Hastily drawn on a yellow legal pad, this iconic drawing marked Bitcoin’s intrusion into the global monetary landscape — the sign is one of few widely-recognized physical Bitcoin artifacts, given Bitcoin’s virtual nature,” the website’s description said. The auctioned notepad also includes Langalis’ notes and mock drawings of the sign from that day.
Langalis, who reportedly was a 22-year-old intern at Cato Institute, was seen holding up the “Buy Bitcoin” sign behind Yellen in July 2017 on the televised House Financial Services Committee hearing. The then-Fed chair was speaking on the Fed’s semiannual monetary policy report to Congress.
While Langalis was removed from the hearing room after holding up the slogan, the price of bitcoin rose 3.7% at the time of broadcast, according to CNBC.
Bitcoin’s value has since risen from around $2,700 in July 2017 to a peak of over $73,000 last month, driven by the major decision from U.S. regulators to allow the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
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About Author
Danny Park is an East Asia reporter at The Block writing on topics including Web3 developments and crypto regulations in the region. He was formerly a reporter at Forkast.News, where he actively covered the downfall of Terra-Luna and FTX. Based in Seoul, Danny has previously produced written and video content for media companies in Korea, Hong Kong and China. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Business Marketing from the University of Hong Kong.