Bitcoin investors recently unlocked their property after redeeming a physical Cassias bar they purchased in 2012, but there was no costly mistake.
An early adopter known as “Johngalt” in Bitcointalk revealed that he had held a 100 BTC Casascius Bar for over 13 years. When Bitcoin was trading for $5, he bought it for just $500.
Pressure to hold $10 million in Bitcoin physically
The risk of physically holding Bitcoin or crypto has become very clear in recent months. As cases of code temptation are rising worldwide, the risks have become clear.
On May 13, 2025, an early investor known as “Johngalt” decided to acquire a 10-year-old physical BTC collection.
He stripped the hologram, exposed his private key, and moved 100 BTC to a full 100 BTC worth more than $100 million to his new address.
The transaction was confirmed on-chain and shared with the BitCointalk community, marking one of the largest physical Bitcoin redemptions ever.
Johngart explained that he avoided redemption of such a valuable asset for many years due to the great pressure to preserve it.
“But I didn’t want to redeem it. For me, physical bitcoin that has not been redeemed feels like it’s worth more than just money,” he writes.
He tried to sell the bar multiple times, including exploring auction options. However, valuation disputes and trust concerns have always been in the way.
With Bitcoin’s value skyrocketing over $100,000, he decided that the risk of holding a single object worthy of eight numbers was no longer worth it.
A complex redemption process
Johngart shared technical details of the process with the forum. He initially tried to wipe out the funds using Electrum on Android, but ran into compatibility issues with the mini’s private key.
Eventually, he turned to bitaddress.org and converted the mini key into a usable format. He created a new wallet in Trezor Suite and manually sent BTC to secure an address.
He confirmed that the funds had moved safely before publicly revealing the bar’s red flag.
Cost-in monitoring: Bitcoin cash billed by strangers
In a key miss step, Johngart posted an online photo of Kasashiwski without first claiming Bitcoin Cash (BCH), the leading fork of Bitcoin.
BCH uses the same private key system, so people looking at the forum thread cleaned up the BCH just nine minutes after the post. He estimated that the lost BCH was worth more than $40,000.
The crypto community responded with a mixture of praise and sympathy. Many praised his nerves and called him the legend that embraced the unstable 13 years.
Others shared fears about physical coin storage risks, including fire damage, glue failures, and flooding.
Several users focused on the emotional and logistical weights of holding undepreciated coins, reflecting their fears of storing millions of valuable physical assets.
Despite redemption of BTC, Johngart confirmed that he would no longer sell empty bars. This remains a valuable part of early Bitcoin history.
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