In one of the most gripping Bitcoin redemption stories to surface in years, a long-time BTC holder has cracked open a Casascius gold bar after holding it tight for over a decade, only to see part of his potential profit vanish in a flash.
Oops! Let’s dive into the whole story.
Originally purchased for just $500 in 2012, the Casascius bar held 100 BTC, now worth over $10 million. After 13 years of dormancy, the owner finally unsealed the bar’s mini-key hologram and moved the coins into new wallets.
He didn’t cash out. Instead, recognizing the sheer value now attached to a single physical wallet, he opted to split the BTC across multiple addresses, a move aimed more at security than liquidation.
Casascius bars, minted during Bitcoin’s early years, are now collector’s treasures. Only 35 unopened 100-BTC bars are believed to exist, according to Casascius records.
These gold-plated pieces carry embedded private keys and were once traded freely, even fetching 125 BTC during their heyday. But the market has since dried up. Today, they’re mostly auctioned as high-value novelty items, with physical security a rising concern.
News of the redemption quickly lit up crypto Twitter. Crypto analyst @TheBTCTherapist, reacted: “Holy shit. $10 million dollar profit”.
Another user tweeted: “We have to all agree this is the best ROI”.
It certainly seemed like it. Until…
The redemption might have gone down as a masterstroke of patience, if not for a critical slip.
The owner posted the mini-seed on Bitcointalk forum, outlining his process to access the bar’s funds. That move cost him dearly.
Since the wallet predated major forks like Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and BSV, it also held rights to those coins. Within moments of the seed going public, someone swept 100 BCH, worth over $50,000, and additional forked coins.
A user named Nexusrushrush later admitted to the grab but returned the BCH to the original address, by then already compromised and open to further theft. No offers were made to restore the lost value.
The security risks around holding real-world private keys have only grown sharper. The stakes are high for everyone!
The Casascius bar redemption process involves carefully unsealing a tamper-resistant hologram to reveal a hidden private key. The owner then uses this private key, often requiring a tool to convert a “mini-seed” to its full version, to import the Bitcoin (and any forked coins) into a digital wallet, allowing them to be moved to new addresses.
Recovering stolen cryptocurrency, including forked coins like BCH, can be challenging but not impossible. The owner could potentially explore legal action, possibly involving blockchain forensics to trace the funds and legal remedies like freezing injunctions if the recipient’s identity or exchange can be identified. However, given the nature of the public key disclosure, direct recovery might be difficult without the recipient’s cooperation.
The production of Casascius physical bitcoins ceased in 2013 after the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) informed creator Mike Caldwell that his operation qualified as a money transmission service, requiring a license. This regulatory intervention effectively dried up the primary market for newly minted Casascius bars, turning existing ones into rare collector’s items.
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