Key Takeaways
- A 2016 Bitcoin wallet shifted 1,260.77 BTC, now worth over $100 million.
- Casascius holders redeemed nearly 75 physical 1 BTC coins in the first 6 days of September.
- Bitcoin must absorb more vintage supply as BTC trades near $79,733 after decade-long gains.
Decade-Old Bitcoin Stash Turns Into $100 Million Fortune
At first, September was witnessing a slowdown of dormant bitcoin moves in comparison to August, but since the 2010 whale that woke up from slumber on Sept. 5, things have kicked into high gear. On Sunday, a Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) wallet moved 1,260.77 BTC in a single transfer. The funds were shifted to an unknown Pay-to-Witness-Public-Key-Hash (P2WPKH) address.
The wallet was first created on July 9, 2016, or exactly ten years, one month, and 28 days ago, and it was discovered by btcparser.com. On that day, bitcoin’s price closed at $650, which means the stash of 1,260.77 BTC was only $819,500.50. At the current $79,733 price today, that cache is worth more than $100 million. That’s a whopping gain of 11,366.15% over the last decade.
Casascius Bitcoin Redemptions Pick Up Steam
In addition to the latest whale movements, Casascius’ physical bitcoin holders have been redeeming a large number of 1 BTC physical bitcoins. Galaxy Research published a post on X that caught a total of 21 series one Casascius physical bitcoins being spent. “Someone redeemed and swept 21 Casascius coins in the last hour,” Galaxy Research wrote. Onchain analyst Sani from Timechainindex.com also wrote about the Casascius coin coin moves.
“Dormant Bitcoin Wakes Up: 900 BTC in Early Mining Rewards + 41 Casascius Coins Move Onchain,” Sani said on X.
Casascius coins are old and valuable as they are metal coins or bars (brass, silver, or gold-plated) that were made by Mike Caldwell between 2011 and 2013. Coins and bars were loaded with digital BTC ranging from a tenth of a coin up to 1,000 BTC. When someone says a Casascius coin was “peeled” or “redeemed” it means the physical coin’s holographic sticker was removed and the owner accessed the private key to actually spend the digital BTC loaded on the coin.
We took a closer look and discovered nearly 75 redemptions of 1 BTC Casascius bitcoins during the first six days of September, according to the Casascius explorer hosted on wickedsmartbitcoin.com. On Sept. 3, there were 14 redemptions of 1 BTC loaded series one coins, around 15 were peeled the following day, and on Sept. 5, the day Galaxy posted about the 21 on X, Bitcoin.com News counted a total of 40 redeemed on that day alone.
Even today, a total of three Casascius physical bitcoins were peeled. Vintage bitcoin holders cashing out could be a significant sign that some think bitcoin’s price has limited upside. Interestingly, even physical coins are being redeemed. With BTC prices clocking big gains, taking profits may simply be in the cards. Now the bitcoin market has to absorb a great deal of old supply amid the modest downturn seen in recent trading sessions.
