According to ChainCatcher, citing a CoinDesk report, two wallets associated with Casascius physical bitcoins recently moved a total of 2,000 bitcoins, worth approximately $180 million, after lying dormant for over a decade. These bitcoins had not been touched since 2011 and 2012, when the price of bitcoin was less than $15, compared to nearly $90,000 now.
Casascius physical coins were created by Utah entrepreneur Mike Caldwell starting in 2011. They are tangible collectibles containing embedded private keys, with face values ranging from 1 to 1,000 BTC. Each coin comes with a tamper-evident holographic seal to protect the private key underneath. Caldwell ceased production of pre-funded coins at the end of 2013 after the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) designated him as an unregistered money transmitter.
The exact purpose of these recent transfers is unclear; it could be for sale, internal restructuring, or precautionary measures to preserve access. It might also be related to the physical components degrading, similar to an incident earlier this year in which a user claiming to own a 100 BTC Casascius bar reported difficulty importing the key into modern wallets after peeling off the hologram.
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