(Bloomberg) -- Here’s the latest sign that animal spirits have returned to the cryptocurrency market: A legal pad with the words “Buy Bitcoin” scribbled on it is currently fetching bids of almost $140,000 in an online auction.

The hastily written message became a rallying call for supporters of the cryptocurrency after it was flashed behind then-Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen during Congressional testimony almost seven years ago. The bidding for the ink drawling is slated to end late Wednesday. 

Christian Langalis, then a 22-year-old who owned some Bitcoin at the time and interned at the Libertarian think tank Cato Institute, made the sign after snagging a seat behind Yellen during her appearance before the House Financial Services Committee in July 2017. After the advertisement was caught on television, Langalis was promptly escorted out of the hearing, though he found himself on the receiving end of about seven Bitcoin in unasked-for donations. 

Back then, Bitcoin was in the midst of its first breakthrough in the public consciousness, trading at around $2,300, up from less than $1,000 a little more than six months earlier. The original cryptocurrency surged more than 13,000% in 2017, only to crash 74% the following year in what has become a frequent boom-and-bust cycle for the digital asset. Now with the likes of Wall Street stalwarts BlackRock and Fidelity championing the token, Langalis is seeking to capitalize on the current momentum that took Bitcoin to a record high of almost $74,000 in March. 

Back in 2019, Langalis sold 21 replica editions of the sign for an average realized price of 0.8 Bitcoin. The replicas, which are numbered and time stamped, were created “by hand by me,” he said.

Several weeks ago, Langalis was offered five Bitcoin — currently worth around $330,000, he said, but decided to auction it off, instead, in hopes of fetching even more for his Bitcoin software work and his family.

The auction materials described the item as “Ink Drawing on Legal Pad” weighing half a pound. The legal pad also contains Langalis’s notes from the hearing that day. “The page with the sign drawing was removed from the notepad shortly after the hearing. It has since been reattached with clear archival wire,” the description said.

The winner will be announced at a Bitcoin-themed eatery called the Pubkey in New York, where Langalis works out of as a co-working space. The sign was displayed at the bar.  

--With assistance from Kate Seaman.

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