A physical bitcoin The legendary 2011-2013 Casascius Mint had its hologram seal removed on Wednesday and the 25 BTC stored inside, worth $1.7 billion at current prices, were transferred to a new wallet.
Casascius coins were physical tokens created by software engineer Mike Caldwell in denominations of 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 25, 100, and even 1000 BTC. Each coin had its bitcoin receiving address printed on the outside, with the corresponding private key hidden under a tamper-proof hologram on the back.
🪙 CASASCIUS COIN REDEEMED: S1-COIN-25 (side of 25 BTC) swept for 25,0000 BTC ($1.78 million)
A physical Casascius bitcoin was removed from the 2011-2013 mint and the private key was inserted into the chain.
Address: 1tLPQwd6wjvZpreivwHsEuU2ceSv6zaon
Also in our database: Noah Doe #38977 ·…– Galaxy Research (@glxyresearch) June 3, 2026
Holders could spend the bitcoin at any time by removing the hologram and importing the private 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 informed him that he was operating as an unlicensed money transmitter.
Casascius coins with intact hologram continue to occupy an unusual category in the collectibles markets. Each piece contains real bitcoins at face value and commands a numismatic premium for the physical artifact when sold intact on collectors’ markets. Thousands of Casascius coins remain unredeemed in all denominations, trackers show.
Caldwell minted fewer than 20 of the 1,000 BTC denomination pieces, most of which are still intact and each of which would now hold the equivalent of approximately $66 million worth of bitcoins. While the project inspired a wave of physical bitcoin successor mints, including Lealana, Denarium, and BTCC, Casascius remains the most collected by a wide margin.
Peeling a Casascius is a one-way business with real economic risks. Large-denomination intact Series 1 coins typically command a premium over their bitcoin face value, meaning Wednesday’s swap turned what could have been a higher-priced collectible into pure bitcoin.
The swap, recorded in Bitcoin block 952,159, comes during a week of unusual activity at the inactive end of Bitcoin’s UTXO pool, with one 2011-era wallet moving 35 BTC after 15 years of inactivity.
