A rare physical bitcoin from the legendary Casascius series (2011-2013) had its hologram seal removed on Wednesday. The 25 BTC stored inside, valued at approximately $1.78 million at current prices, were transferred to a new wallet. The redemption was recorded in Bitcoin block 952,159.
Origins of the Casascius Physical Coins
Casascius tokens were created by software engineer Mike Caldwell in denominations of 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 25, 100 and even 1,000 BTC. Each coin displayed a receiving bitcoin address on the front, with the private key concealed under a tamper-evident hologram on the back. Spending the bitcoin required peeling the hologram and importing the key into a wallet, a one-way move that destroyed the coin's collectible status.
Caldwell halted production in late 2013 after the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) advised him he was operating as an unlicensed money transmitter. Thousands of Casascius coins across all denominations remain unredeemed. Fewer than 20 of the 1,000-BTC denomination pieces were ever minted, most still intact, each now holding roughly $66 million in bitcoin.
The Price of Peeling: Collectible Premium Lost
Intact Series 1 large-denomination Casascius coins typically command a premium over their face bitcoin value. Wednesday's redemption converted what could have been a higher-priced collectible back into pure bitcoin — a trade-off between numismatic premium and immediate liquidity.
The same week saw another dormant address move 35 BTC from a 2011-era wallet after 15 years of inactivity, adding to the unusual activity among old Bitcoin UTXOs.