Two Casascius Bitcoin coins awaken after 13.2 years

On December 5, two Bitcoin Casascius coins moved a total of 2,000.0027811 BTC after being dormant since 2011–2012.

The first Bitcoin Casascius was dormant for 13.2 years and moved 1,000.0028 BTC, while the second Casascius was dormant for 14 years and its output was 999.99998110 BTC. The overall value of the 2,000 BTC equates to around $180 million.

On the same day, a total of 8 BTC was redeemed from other Bitcoin Casascius coins.

It’s unclear who the owners of the high-value BTC Casascius are. The purpose of the redemption could be a sale or a simple transfer to preserve asset access due to physical damage.

In 2025, the Bitcoin space saw a number of Casascius coins moving after a decade of dormancy. Cryptopolitan reported the redemption of 100 BTC from a Casascius back in July. In late October, another early Bitcoiner released 9.5 BTC from nine Casascius.

What is a Bitcoin Casascius?

A Bitcoin Casascius is a physical collectible item, usually made form silver or gold. The item was created by Mike Caldwell, a Utah based entrepreneur, back in 2011.

According to the Casascius Bitcoin Analyzer website, the collectibles were sold as coins or bars. Coins carried as low as 0.1 BTC to 1,000 BTC, while bars had a minimum of 100 BTC up to 1,000 BTC per bar.

Each Casascius worked as a Bitcoin cold storage device. Each physical coin and bar had a public Bitcoin address. Inside the coin or bar, there’s a redeemable private key, protected by a tamper-evident hologram.

Once the hologram is removed, it leaves a honeycomb pattern as proof of access. Some Casascius are advanced and have an encrypted private key. Owners of such collectibles must decrypt the private keys using a passphrase to redeem the bitcoins.

Caldwell sold 27,912 Casascius coins and bars, funded with digital bitcoins. The items contain a total of 98,483.9 BTC.

In late 2013, Caldwell stopped selling physical coins and bars that contained digital bitcoins. At the time, US FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) said he was acting as an unregistered money transmitter.

According to a post from X user Sani, a total of 17,835 BTC Casascius remain unopened. They carry 36,467 bitcoins worth $3.29 billion.

Dormant BTC continue to move this year. Sani shared a post showing 16 transactions moving 14-year-old BTC. A total of 64 BTC worth $5.7 million moved from various wallet addresses. Unknown entities moved the coins in a span of two days.

In the past hour, 7 BTC moved for the first time in over a decade across four transactions.

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