A handwritten note bearing the phrase "Buy Bitcoin," famously displayed behind former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen during Congressional testimony in 2014, is now drawing bids nearing $140,000 in an online auction.

Crafted by Christian Langalis, then a 22-year-old intern at the Cato Institute and a Bitcoin enthusiast, the note sparked both controversy and admiration. Despite Langalis being escorted out of the hearing for his act, the artifact has become a sought-after item in the crypto community.

Listed as an "Ink Drawing on Legal Pad" on Scarce City, a marketplace for crypto-related goods, the auction has seen bids reaching 2.2 BTC (approximately $140,000 at the time of writing). The highest bid has been placed by an anonymous user under the alias @BITPAINTCLUB.

Langalis expressed his sentiment about the note, stating, "Bitcoin was massively rupturing into the halls of institutional finance in 2017. 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."

The auction is set to conclude on April 24, with the winner to be announced at a Bitcoin-themed eatery in New York, where Langalis is employed. Described as one of the few widely-recognized physical Bitcoin artifacts, the note represents a significant moment in Bitcoin's history, given its virtual nature.