The post Two Casascius Coins Holding 2,000 BTC Moved After 13 Years of Inactivity appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Two long-dormant bitcoin wallets tied to physical Casascius coins moved a total of 2,000 BTC, worth roughly $180 million after more than a decade of inactivity. The coins had been untouched since 2011 and 2012, when bitcoin was trading for less than $15 versus today’s price just shy of $90,000. The movement was confirmed by a blockchain explorer tracking the addresses. Casascius coins are physical collectibles containing embedded private keys, made by Utah-based entrepreneur Mike Caldwell beginning in 2011. The coins, issued in denominations ranging from 1 to 1,000 BTC, were designed as offline cold storage. Each coin came with a tamper-evident holographic seal to protect the key underneath. Caldwell stopped producing pre-funded coins in late 2013 after the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) labeled him an unregistered money transmitter. That regulatory pressure effectively ended the Casascius project, leaving around 90,000 coins in circulation, most holding small amounts of BTC. A handful, just six coins and 16 bars, were minted with 1,000 BTC. It’s unclear whether the recent transfers were sales, internal reorganizations or simply precautionary moves to preserve access. The transfers could be linked to degrading physical components. In a similar case earlier this year, a user on Bitcointalk claiming to be the owner of a 100 BTC Casascius bar reported difficulties importing the key into modern wallets after peeling the hologram. He eventually moved the funds, now worth about $9 million, to hardware storage. Source: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/12/06/two-casascius-coins-holding-2k-btc-moved-after-13-years-of-inactivityThe post Two Casascius Coins Holding 2,000 BTC Moved After 13 Years of Inactivity appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Two long-dormant bitcoin wallets tied to physical Casascius coins moved a total of 2,000 BTC, worth roughly $180 million after more than a decade of inactivity. The coins had been untouched since 2011 and 2012, when bitcoin was trading for less than $15 versus today’s price just shy of $90,000. The movement was confirmed by a blockchain explorer tracking the addresses. Casascius coins are physical collectibles containing embedded private keys, made by Utah-based entrepreneur Mike Caldwell beginning in 2011. The coins, issued in denominations ranging from 1 to 1,000 BTC, were designed as offline cold storage. Each coin came with a tamper-evident holographic seal to protect the key underneath. Caldwell stopped producing pre-funded coins in late 2013 after the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) labeled him an unregistered money transmitter. That regulatory pressure effectively ended the Casascius project, leaving around 90,000 coins in circulation, most holding small amounts of BTC. A handful, just six coins and 16 bars, were minted with 1,000 BTC. It’s unclear whether the recent transfers were sales, internal reorganizations or simply precautionary moves to preserve access. The transfers could be linked to degrading physical components. In a similar case earlier this year, a user on Bitcointalk claiming to be the owner of a 100 BTC Casascius bar reported difficulties importing the key into modern wallets after peeling the hologram. He eventually moved the funds, now worth about $9 million, to hardware storage. Source: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/12/06/two-casascius-coins-holding-2k-btc-moved-after-13-years-of-inactivity

                                                                               Legal experts are concerned that transforming ESMA into the “European SEC” may hinder the licensing of crypto and fintech in the region.                     The European Commission’s proposal to expand the powers of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is raising concerns about the centralization of the bloc’s licensing regime, despite signaling deeper institutional ambitions for its capital markets structure.On Thursday, the Commission published a package proposing to “direct supervisory competences” for key pieces of market infrastructure, including crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), trading venues and central counterparties to ESMA, Cointelegraph reported.Concerningly, the ESMA’s jurisdiction would extend to both the supervision and licensing of all European crypto and financial technology (fintech) firms, potentially leading to slower licensing regimes and hindering startup development, according to Faustine Fleuret, head of public affairs at decentralized lending protocol Morpho.Read more