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 had been dormant for 13.2 years and moved 1,000.0028 BTC. The second Casascius was dormant for 14 years, and its output was 999.99998110 BTC. The total value of these 2,000 BTC equates to approximately $180 million.
On the same day, a total of 8 BTC was redeemed from other Bitcoin Casascius coins.
The identities of the owners of these high-value BTC Casascius remain unknown. The purpose of the redemption could be for a sale or a simple transfer to preserve asset access due to potential physical damage to the collectibles.
The year 2025 has seen a number of Casascius coins moving after a decade of dormancy. In July, Cryptopolitan reported the redemption of 100 BTC from a Casascius. 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, typically made from silver or gold. The item was created by Mike Caldwell, an entrepreneur based in Utah, in 2011.
According to the Casascius Bitcoin Analyzer website, these collectibles were sold as coins or bars. The coins carried denominations ranging from as low as 0.1 BTC to 1,000 BTC, while the bars had a minimum of 100 BTC up to 1,000 BTC per bar.
Each Casascius functioned as a Bitcoin cold storage device. Each physical coin and bar had a public Bitcoin address. Inside, there was a redeemable private key protected by a tamper-evident hologram.
Once the hologram was removed, it would leave a honeycomb pattern as proof of access. Some Casascius were more advanced and featured an encrypted private key. Owners of such collectibles needed to decrypt the private keys using a passphrase to redeem the bitcoins.
Caldwell sold a total of 27,912 Casascius coins and bars, which were funded with digital bitcoins. These items collectively contain 98,483.9 BTC.
In late 2013, Caldwell ceased selling physical coins and bars that contained digital bitcoins. At that time, the U.S. FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) stated that he was operating as an unregistered money transmitter.
According to a post from X user Sani, a total of 17,835 BTC Casascius remain unopened. These unopened collectibles carry 36,467 bitcoins, valued at $3.29 billion.
Dormant BTC continue to be moved this year. Sani shared a post detailing 16 transactions that moved 14-year-old BTC. A total of 64 BTC, worth $5.7 million, moved from various wallet addresses. These coins were moved by unknown entities over a span of two days.
In the past hour, 7 BTC have moved for the first time in over a decade across four transactions.