BUY BITCOIN.
On 12 July 2017, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen appeared before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, D.C., to deliver her semiannual monetary-policy testimony. Employment, inflation and interest rates were on the agenda. Behind her, a young man raised a yellow legal pad with two handwritten words: "Buy Bitcoin."
The sign-holder was Christian Langalis, later known as Bitcoin Sign Guy. His brief appearance in the television frame turned an audience seat into an improvised broadcast position. No elaborate production was needed: ink, paper and a place behind the witness put the message alongside one of the most recognisable figures in central banking.
The image's humour comes from that arrangement. Yellen faces the committee while the sign competes for the viewer's attention just behind her shoulder. The formal business continues in the foreground; a spectator supplies his own message in the background. A physical sheet of paper gives a digital currency a simple, portable image that can travel far beyond the room.
The paper later became a collectible in its own right. Scarce City's auction of the original sign recorded a winning bid of 16 BTC on 24 April 2024. That later event gives the scene a second timescale: a moment caught on television in 2017, and an object preserved and valued years afterward.
The artwork holds those times together without pretending to be a photograph. The report heading anchors the congressional setting, while the small price note and 16 BTC annotation add illustrative context. The wall plaque supplies a visual joke. The date belongs to the House appearance; Yellen submitted identical remarks to a Senate committee the following day.
Sources & the artist’s interpretation
Sources: Federal Reserve testimony ; Scarce City auction and reproduced coverage . The auction page reproduces CNBC's 12 July report of $2,418.46 at 2:27 p.m. ET; the painted amount is an approximate afternoon reference. The annotations and NO SIGNS plaque are artistic inventions, not Yellen's notes or a documented wall fixture. BUY BITCOIN. uses the sign's words with normalised capitals and punctuation, not investment advice. Incidental attendees remain unidentified. No cross-card cameo, affiliation, endorsement or rights clearance is implied.
