Last week’s notable auction concluded with Scarce City reducing its commission fee to 15%, resulting in Christian Langalis expecting to receive approximately 13.6 Bitcoin valued at $875,000. A piece of notebook paper featuring the famous “Buy Bitcoin” phrase, visible during a broadcast with United States Federal Reserve Chair 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 placed by an individual known by the pseudonym Squirrekkywrath, who won the item after a week-long open auction. The auction was hosted on the Scarce.City platform and conducted in person by Christian Langalis, also known as Bitcoin Sign Guy.
The iconic “Buy Bitcoin” writing on the yellow notebook symbolizes Bitcoin’s emergence into the global financial landscape. This physical artifact, especially considering Bitcoin’s digital nature, stands out as one of the few widely recognized symbols of Bitcoin. 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 from the auction will support Langalis’ new venture, Tirrel Corp, which focuses on creating a Bitcoin Lightning network wallet on Urbit.
Langalis and the Buy Bitcoin Sign
Langalis, in 2019, created and sold 21 copies of the iconic Buy Bitcoin sign, each at an average price of 0.8 Bitcoin. Today, each piece would be valued at 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 raising the sign during a 2017 House Financial Services hearing. However, the image of the sign quickly spread online.
Since then, Bitcoin’s value has surged, climbing from about $2,700 in July 2017 to over $73,000 last month. This increase partly followed significant developments in the U.S., including the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds earlier this year.
