Christian Langalis expects to receive approximately $875,000, equivalent to 13.6 bitcoins, after Scarce.City deducts a 15% fee.
A piece of note paper with the words "Buy Bitcoin" printed on it, which was famously used as the background for a public speech by Janet Yellen, the chairwoman of the US Federal Reserve, in 2017, was recently sold for 16 bitcoins, or about $1.027 million.
The sale was held at PubKey, a Bitcoin-themed bar in New York City, and was organized and facilitated by auction house Scarce.City.
Iconic 'Buy Bitcoin' sign sold at auction
The highest bidder, who goes by the pseudonym "Squirrekkywrath," won the "Buy Bitcoin" sign during a week-long auction organized by Christian Langalis, better known as the "Bitcoin Sign Guy," who not only posted the sign on the auction platform Scarce.City but also attended the auction in person.
Scarce.City noted that the transaction set a record for the platform, and after deducting Scarce City’s 15% handling fee, Langalis expects to receive approximately $875,000, equivalent to about 13.6 bitcoins.
The iconic "Buy Bitcoin" sign, written on a yellow legal notebook, symbolizes Bitcoin's rise to global finance. Given that Bitcoin is primarily digital, this physical artifact is one of the few widely recognized symbols of Bitcoin. The auction's notebook also includes Langalis' original notes and sketches of the sign on that historic day.
At the time of the famous incident, Langalis was reportedly a 22-year-old intern at the Cato Institute. Funds raised from the auction will support Langalis’ new venture, Tirrel Corp, which is focused on creating a Bitcoin Lightning Network wallet on Urbit.
During that famous event, Langalis was said to be a 22-year-old intern at the Cato Institute. The proceeds from the auction will be used to support Langalis' new venture, Tirrel Corp, which is focused on creating a Bitcoin Lightning Network wallet on Urbit.
Copies of the "Buy Bitcoin" sign were sold for 0.8 Bitcoin each
In 2019, Langalis created and sold 21 copies of the iconic “Buy Bitcoin” sign for an average of 0.8 bitcoin each, which works out to about $51,300 in today’s dollars.
According to the listing, the replicas are proudly displayed in the offices of venture capital firms including Paradigm, Blockchain Capital, Castle Island Ventures, and cryptocurrency think tank Coin Center.
After Langalis held up the sign during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in 2017, he was escorted from the building for violating committee rules. However, images of the sign quickly spread across the internet. After the event, the price of Bitcoin surged 3.7% at the time of the broadcast.
Since then, Bitcoin has experienced explosive growth in value, soaring from around $2,700 in July 2017 to a high of over $73,000 in the middle of last month. This significant growth is partly due to major regulatory decisions in the United States, such as the approval of the launch of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) earlier this year. #BuyBitcoin #耶伦
