Casascius 1000 BTC, 1 troy OZ .999 Fine Gold 1)
In 2011 Casascius sold these 1000 BTC, 1 troy OZ .999 Fine Gold coins for about $ 5000, which included the 1000 btc 2). In 2013 one was sold for $ 1.000.000! Casascius only funded five of these coins 3), three of them are still active, two have been redeemed.
How do physical crypto coins work?
The private key (the ownership of the btc) is printed and stored under a security hologram sticker. It is very hard, if not impossible to remove the hologram without damaging them.
Why buy physical loaded crypto coins?
- It is a way to make sure you don’t spend your btc as easily.
Since there is a premium (addition of btc on the face value) on these coins, it is not really worth it to redeem them, this would result in a loss off btc. Ofcourse it depends on the btc - dollar price. When the price of btc went to $ 1000 a lot were redeemed for the btc. - It is a great way to physically distribute btc, get people acquainted with bitcoin.
- It is a great collectors item, an addition to every coin collection.
Why not buy physical loaded crypto coins?
- You are trusting a third party to generate the private key and destroy it, so the private key is only under the hologram.
- The premiums on Casascius coins are high. For a 1 btc silver coin the price is around 2.4 btc, which means a ‘loss’ of 1.4 btc.
- Possible counterfeits in the future. The chain of custody will be very important.
So why not buy unloaded coins?
Physical crypto coin collectors seem to prefer loaded coins, which actually contain the btc or other crypto. Unloaded coins are seen as tokens and are less desirable.