Janet Yellen’s ‘Buy Bitcoin’ note hits $140k in online auction

A “Buy Bitcoin” note, previously shown behind former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, is now drawing bids at $140,000 in an online auction.

A legal pad bearing the phrase “Buy Bitcoin” is attracting bids nearing $140,000 in an online auction, gaining attention after being displayed behind former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen during Congressional testimony nearly seven years ago.

Made by Christian Langalis, then a 22-year-old intern at the Cato Institute and a Bitcoin enthusiast, the written message sparked both controversy and admiration.

Despite Langalis being escorted out of the hearing for his act, his artifact is now attracting bids nearing $140,000 (2.2 BTC as of press time) in an online auction described as an “Ink Drawing on Legal Pad” on Scarce City, a marketplace that uses BTC to sell crypto-related goods for the crypto. At the time of writing, the largest bid (2.2 BTC) has been placed by an X user under alias @BITPAINTCLUB.

“Bitcoin was massively rupturing into the halls of institutional finance in 2017. Any Bitcoiner worth their sats would have told you so. It’s good to finally liberate this number from my sock drawer and offer it back to the Bitcoin public. The message was subversive then, but now merely obvious: Bitcoin is flowing. Control is dead.”

Christian Langalis

Set to conclude on Apr. 24, the winner of the auction will be announced at a Bitcoin-themed eatery in New York, where Langalis is employed. According to the lot’s description, the sign is “one of few widely-recognized physical Bitcoin artifacts, given Bitcoin’s virtual nature.”