$180 million! Casascius physical bitcoins dormant for ten years suddenly moved

[Bitpush] Bitcoin Dormant for Ten Years Suddenly Awakens.

Two wallets linked to Casascius physical coins have recently become active—transferring 2,000 BTC in one go, worth about $180 million at current prices. These coins have been untouched since 2011 and 2012, back when Bitcoin was only a few dozen dollars each. Now, it’s approaching $90,000.

Speaking of Casascius, we have to mention Mike Caldwell from Utah. In 2011, he started making these: putting private keys into metal coins, sealed with anti-counterfeit holographic stickers on the outside, with denominations ranging from 1 BTC to 1,000 BTC. You can think of them as physical versions of cold wallets, just shaped like commemorative coins.

But the good times didn’t last long. At the end of 2013, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network targeted him, saying his operation was considered an unregistered money transmission business. Caldwell had no choice but to stop producing pre-loaded coins. Since then, these physical coins have become rare collectibles.

What’s the purpose behind this transfer? There are several possibilities: selling for cash, internal account reorganization, moving coins early out of concern for losing the private key, or—an interesting theory—hardware deterioration. Earlier this year, someone said that after peeling off the holographic sticker from their 100 BTC Casascius bar, they couldn’t import the private key into a new wallet. After more than a decade, materials and technology have changed, and these old relics may indeed encounter issues.

In any case, the owner of these coins has finally hit the transfer button. A seed planted ten years ago has now yielded an astronomical harvest.