‘Buy Bitcoin’ Notepad Held Behind Janet Yellen Sells for $1M

By Ryan S. Gladwin

Back in 2017, a 22 year-old intern crudely scribbled ‘Buy Bitcoin’ in a yellow legal notepad. He then held the aforementioned pad up during a televised House Financial Services Committee hearing. Now, seven years later, that pad has sold for a cool $1.019 million.

Christian Langalis, now known as the original “Bitcoin Sign Guy,” was attending the hearing as an intern at think tank Cato Institute. During the hearing, then-United States Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was speaking about the Fed’s semiannual monetary policy report to Congress.

As you’d expect, Langalis was chucked out of the courtroom following his Bitcoin stunt. But it wasn’t all in vain; according to CNBC the price of Bitcoin spiked by 3.7% in the aftermath of the broadcast.

The now 29-year-old Langalis sold the yellow legal notepad on auction site Scarce City on April 18. A week later, the highest bidder was Squirrekkywrath, otherwise known as Justin, at 16 BTC ($1.019 million).

“When Bitcoiners ask me about the sign, I tell them, You’d have done the same in my seat,” Langalis said in his artist statement on Scarce City. “It’s good to finally liberate this number from my sock drawer and offer it back to the Bitcoin public.”

Langalis will reportedly use the proceeds of the sale to fund his startup, Tirrel Corp, which is building a Bitcoin Lightning Network wallet atop decentralized personal server platform Urbit.

Throughout the duration of the auction, the pad was on public display at the Pubkey Bar in New York City, a self-described Bitcoin dive bar. During the final hour of the auction, an event was held at the bar with the notepad on a spinning platform as the final bids were placed.

“What Christian did many years ago at a congressional hearing put the word Bitcoin in front of a lot of people,” the host of the event at Pubkey Bar said when the piece of history was handed over. “It’s kind of like a Magna Carta. It’s kind of like a Declaration of Independence. Particularly because of the place and the time and the moment.”

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