🐳 Two wallets linked to physical bitcoins from Casascius have recently transferred a total of 2,000 bitcoins, valued at around 180 million dollars, after more than ten years of inactivity. These bitcoins had not been moved since 2011 and 2012, at a time when the price of bitcoin was below 15 dollars, compared to nearly 90,000 dollars currently.
The physical Casascius coins were created in 2011 by Utah-based American entrepreneur Mike Caldwell. They are physical collector coins containing an integrated private key, with nominal values ranging from 1 to 1,000 BTC. Each coin is sealed with an unbreakable hologram to protect the private key beneath. Due to Caldwell's classification by the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as an unregistered money transmitter, he ceased producing preloaded coins at the end of 2013.
The exact reason for this transfer remains unknown: it could be a sale, internal reorganization, or a precautionary measure to preserve access. It may also be related to the degradation of physical components, as reported earlier this year by a user claiming to own a Casascius bar of 100 BTC, who had difficulties importing the key into a modern wallet after removing the hologram.
