‘Buy Bitcoin’ sign that photobombed Janet Yellen sells for $1M
A yellow notepad with “Buy Bitcoin” written on it, which was flashed behind then-United States Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen during a 2017 Congressional hearing, has sold at auction for 16 Bitcoin (BTC) — over $1 million.
The buyer, identified as “Justin” also known as “Squirrekkywrath,” was the winning bidder on the Bitcoin auction platform Scarce City. The auction ran for a week, ending on April 24, just after 11:00 pm UTC.
The sign was offered up by Christian Langalis who wrote it out and flashed it to the camera after nabbing a seat behind Yellen at a televised House Financial Services Committee hearing in July 2017.
Langalis was escorted out after photobombing Yellen as signs are not allowed to be displayed during hearings.
CNBC reported at the time that after the sign was flashed, Bitcoin traded 3.7% higher, reaching over $2,418.
After Scarce City takes its 15% fee, Langalis is set to pocket around $875,000, or 13.6 BTC.
In a statement under the listing, Langalis said it was “good to finally liberate this number from my sock drawer and offer it back to the Bitcoin public.”
Related: $1M Bitcoin price still in play amid ‘macro liquidity surge’ — Arthur Hayes
The listing notes the page with the handwritten sign “was removed from the notepad shortly after the hearing” but was since “reattached with clear archival wire.”
The yellow legal pad also contains “an unseen rough draft” of the now-iconic scrawl along with notes on the hearing monetary policy and Bitcoin.
In 2019, Langalis created and sold 21 replicas of the sign which sold for an average price of 0.8 BTC, worth about $51,300 today.
The listing claims the replicas are displayed in the offices of venture firms Paradigm, Blockchain Capital and Castle Island Ventures along with the crypto think-tank Coin Center.
Bloomberg reported that Langalis planned to use the money from the latest sale to help fund a Bitcoin software project.
Magazine: Recursive inscriptions — Bitcoin ‘supercomputer’ and BTC DeFi coming soon
