'Buy Bitcoin' Sign Sold for Over $1M at Auction

• The iconic 'Buy Bitcoin' sign that was held up behind Janet Yellen was sold at an auction for 16 BTC.
• Proceeds from the auction will go to fund a Bitcoin layer-2 startup called Tirrel Corp.

The iconic 'Buy Bitcoin' sign held behind Janet Yellen during her televised Congressional testimony in July 2017 has been auctioned off for 16 BTC, or just over $1 million.

Scarce.City, the auction house that facilitated the deal, said it was a record amount for the auction platform.

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, according to a tweet from PubKey.

Not much is known about its new owner. The head of research at Galaxy, Alex Thorn, said he’s a “bitcoin OG that no one has ever heard of.”

In a prior interview with CoinDesk, Christian Langalis, who held up the sign, said the proceeds would go to fund his startup, Tirrel Corp, which is developing a Bitcoin Lightning network wallet on Urbit.

After holding up the sign during a 2017 House Financial Services hearing, Langalis was escorted out of the building for violating committee rules – all the while, the image was going viral on the web.