Last week’s notable auction resulted in Christian Langalis expecting to receive approximately $875,000, equivalent to about 13.6 Bitcoin, after Scarce City reduced its 15% commission fee. A piece of notebook paper featuring the famous “Buy Bitcoin” phrase, seen during a broadcast with Janet Yellen in 2017, sold for about 16 Bitcoins.
Key Details from the Auction
The auction, held at the Bitcoin-themed bar PubKey in New York City, was organized by the auction house Scarce City. The highest bid was made by someone using the alias Squirrekkywrath, who secured the item after a week-long open auction. The auction was conducted on the Scarce.City platform and was personally managed by Christian Langalis, also known as Bitcoin Sign Guy.
The iconic “Buy Bitcoin” writing in the yellow notebook symbolizes Bitcoin’s emergence in the global financial scene. This physical artifact stands out as one of the few widely recognized symbols of Bitcoin, especially considering its digital nature. The auctioned notebook contains Langalis’ original notes and sketches of the sign from that historic day.
At the time of the famous incident, Langalis was known to be a 22-year-old intern at the Cato Institute. The funds raised from the auction will support Langalis’ new initiative, Tirrel Corp, which focuses on creating a Bitcoin Lightning network wallet on Urbit.
Langalis and the Buy Bitcoin Sign
Langalis created and sold 21 copies of the iconic Buy Bitcoin sign in 2019, each at an average price of 0.8 Bitcoin. Today, each piece would be worth approximately $51,300. According to the list, these copies are displayed in the offices of venture firms such as Paradigm, Blockchain Capital, Castle Island Ventures, and the crypto think tank Coin Center.
Langalis was removed from the building for violating committee rules after lifting the sign during a 2017 House Financial Services hearing. However, the image of the sign quickly spread online.
Since then, the value of Bitcoin has rapidly increased, rising from about $2,700 in July 2017 to over $73,000 last month. This increase is partly due to significant developments in the US, including the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds earlier this year.
