The owner of an early Casascius physical bitcoin coin removed its tamper-evident hologram and spent the embedded funds after twelve years inactive.

What Casascius coins are

Casascius coins were physical bitcoin tokens produced by Mike Caldwell between 2011 and 2013 as tangible carriers of private keys.

• The coins carried paper or metal inserts embedding a private key to a real bitcoin address and were sealed by a hologram.
• Denominations issued ranged from 0.5 BTC to 1000 BTC, offering collectors direct access to on‑chain balances.
• The hologram acted as a tamper‑evident seal that visibly damaged if someone attempted unauthorized access to the key.

Recent activation and provenance

Galaxy Research analysts tracked a transaction tied to a rare Casascius coin that had remained unspent for twelve years.

The specific coin belonged to the earliest series and was marked with a face value of 25 BTC, one of 345 minted in that series.

According to reporting, fewer than 108 of those early series pieces remain unredeemed on the blockchain.

Market value and collectible impact

At original issue the metal token’s contents were worth less than $100, reflecting early bitcoin prices at minting.

Today the underlying 25 BTC is valued at approximately $1.83 million on secondary markets, according to market estimates.

Collectors note that physically opening a Casascius coin eliminates the collectible premium, which historically could add tens of thousands of dollars above the asset value.

Regulatory closure of production

Production of Casascius coins ceased at the end of 2013 after FinCEN notified Mike Caldwell about possible applicability of money transmitter licensing requirements.

The regulatory notice ended further commercial minting and shifted the objects' status toward finite collectibles for the bitcoin community.