According to the latest data, 352.3 BTC worth $23.5 million linked to Casascius physical bitcoins have been redeemed this year. Despite the redemption of 155 physical bitcoin units, an estimated $2.7 billion in value remains unclaimed and tied to these tangible assets.

18,741 of Mike Caldwell’s Casascius Coins Remain Unpeeled

In the early days, Mike Caldwell created nearly 28,000 physical coins and bars, integrating digital BTC with these assets. In 2011, he developed a method to attach bitcoin (BTC) to physical items by creating coins and bars from brass, silver, or gold-plated metal, featuring intricate designs and the Bitcoin logo. Caldwell securely generated a unique private key for each coin, printed it on a tamper-evident holographic sticker, and covered a QR code representing the private key.

He then loaded the corresponding bitcoin onto the public address associated with the private key, which was also included on the coin. When a user peels the sticker to reveal the private key and transfers the funds to another address, the coin or bar is considered “peeled.” So far in 2024, casasciustracker.com shows 155 of these assets have been peeled, with February seeing the most activity with 44 peeled coins.

However, the highest value redeemed in a single month was in January, with 153.1 BTC spent, while February saw 92 BTC spent. March recorded 50 BTC redeemed, and April had the lowest amount with 18.2 BTC redeemed. As of May, 16 coins have been peeled, resulting in 39 BTC redeemed. Currently, there are 18,741 active coins containing 40,674 BTC valued at $2.7 billion. The high BTC per coin ratio is due to Caldwell’s Casascius assets being available in 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 25, 100, and 1,000 BTC increments.

While 18,741 active coins or bars remain, 9,187 have been redeemed since Caldwell introduced these tangible items. These 9,187 coins held 50,590 BTC worth $3.3 billion at current bitcoin exchange rates. Interestingly, despite BTC reaching a new all-time high in March above $73,000, few Casascius assets were redeemed.

The largest redemption period remains December 2017, with 411 coins redeemed, amounting to 1,172.8 BTC. The highest value redeemed in a single month was in June 2013, with 2,852 BTC redeemed. During the BTC bull run of 2021, 513.7 BTC was spent in January, and 395.9 BTC was transferred in April 2021.

What are your thoughts on the $2.7 billion worth of unredeemed Casascius bitcoin assets? Share your views on this subject in the comments section below.