A yellow notepad with the words “Buy Bitcoin,” famously displayed behind former US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen during a 2017 Congressional hearing, was sold at auction for more than $1 million, equivalent to 16 Bitcoins.
The auction took place on Bitcoin auction platform Scarce City and ended on April 24, with the winning bidder identified as “Justin,” also known as “Squirrekkywrath.”
The seller of the notebook was Christian Langalis, who wrote the note and briefly showed it to the camera while sitting behind Yellen during a televised hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services in July 2017.
Langalis was immediately escorted out of the hearing due to a ban on hanging signs. However, the impact was noticeable, as the price of Bitcoin reportedly rose 3.7% to over $2418, according to CNBC.
Langalis will receive $875,000 from the sale
Langalis is expected to receive about $875,000, or 13.6 BTC, from the sale, after deducting a 15% commission from Scarce City. At the auction, Langalis expressed satisfaction at releasing the pad and returning it to the Bitcoin community.
“It felt good to finally release this number from my drawer and offer it back to the Bitcoin community,” he said. The listing indicated that the page containing the handwritten mark was removed from the notebook shortly after the hearing, but was subsequently reattached with archival wire.
In addition, the yellow notebook contains an invisible sketch of the iconic handwriting, as well as notes on the hearing’s monetary policy and Bitcoin.
In 2019, Langalis created and sold 21 replicas of the sign, with an average price of 0.8 BTC, the equivalent of about $51,300 today. According to the listing, the replicas are currently on display at the offices of venture capital firms Paradigm, Blockchain Capital, Castle Island Ventures and crypto-advisor Coin Center.
Bloomberg reported that Langalis intends to use the proceeds from the latest sale to support the Bitcoin software project.
Bitcoin falls below $64,000
Bitcoin fell to just $63,589 on Wednesday, down 4% from its highest level of the day. The sell-off came amid the continued resistance Bitcoin is facing, despite attempts to consolidate above the $66,000 level.
Downward pressure on BTC is further compounded by the fact that the funding rate turned negative for the first time this year, just before the recent halving. A negative funding rate indicates that market sentiment has turned bearish as short positions outweigh long positions.
“At this point, it’s difficult to predict short-term volatility, because we don’t know what factors will emerge in the market over the next one to three months,” – Ruslan Lienkha, director of markets at YouHodler , said in a commentary.
He added that given the information currently available, he does not expect further consolidation and a drop in volatility in the near future before BTC leaves the current $72-60,000 channel.
“Breaking through this channel in either direction will mean a significant increase in volatility, but it is difficult to say when this will happen – it could be in a week or in five months.”
