Bitcoin Advocate Sells $1M Sign from 2017 Congressional Hearing

Key Points

• Christian Langalis, known for flashing a “Buy Bitcoin” sign during a 2017 Congressional hearing, has sold the sign for $1M in Bitcoin.
• The auction was facilitated by Bitcoin auction platform Scarce City and the winning bidder was identified as “Justin” or “Squirrekkywrath”.

Christian Langalis, the individual who famously held up a “Buy Bitcoin” notepad during a live television broadcast, has successfully auctioned off the sign.

Langalis was a 22-year-old intern attending a Congressional hearing in 2017, featuring the then-Chair of the United States Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen.

His act turned him into a sensation within the crypto development and investment community, despite being promptly escorted off the premises.

The Auction

The Bitcoin auction platform Scarce City announced that the sign has been sold for 16 Bitcoin, roughly equivalent to $1.027 million.

The winning bidder, known as “Justin” or “Squirrekkywrath”, won the auction which lasted for one week, ending just after 11:00 pm. UTC on April 24.

Scarce City will take a 15% cut from the sale, leaving Langalis with approximately 13.6 BTC or around $874,000.

This isn’t Langalis’s first time profiting from the sign. In 2019, he created and sold at least 21 replicas of the sign, each fetching an average price of 0.8 BTC.

At current prices, each replica is valued at $51,420. Buyers included venture firms Paradigm, Blockchain Capital, Castle Island Ventures, and crypto think-tank Coin Center.

The Sign’s Details and Langalis’s Future Plans

The sign, described as an “Ink Drawing on Legal Pad” in the listing, weighs half a pound and contains Langalis’s notes from the hearing.

The page with the sign was removed from the notepad after the hearing and has since been reattached with clear archival wire.

Langalis plans to use the proceeds from the sale to fund his startup, Tirrel Corp, which is reportedly developing a Bitcoin Lightning network wallet and implementation.

Since 2017, the price of Bitcoin has risen from around $2,300 to a record high of nearly $74,000 in March 2024, thanks to institutional investors like Fidelity and BlackRock championing the digital asset.