The original "Buy Bitcoin" signed used in the Federal Reserve photobombing sold for 16 BTC over $1M at the time

On April 25, 2024, the iconic ‘Buy Bitcoin’ sign, which gained worldwide attention when it was held up behind Janet Yellen during her televised Congressional testimony in July 2017, was sold at an auction for 16 BTC, or just over $1 million.
 

The sign was auctioned off on Scarce City, a marketplace for bitcoin paraphernalia and ephemera. The auction itself was held at PubKey, a Bitcoin-themed bar in New York City. The sign’s new owner is someone who goes by the handle of Squirrekkywrath.
 

Christian Langalis, the person who held up the sign during the 2017 House Financial Services hearing, was the one who decided to sell it. After holding up the sign during the hearing, Langalis was escorted out of the building for violating committee rules, but the image quickly went viral on the web.
 

Langalis, who was then a 22-year-old intern at the Libertarian think tank Cato Institute, decided to sell the sign to fund his startup, Tirrel Corp, which is developing a Bitcoin Lightning network wallet on Urbit.