Casascius Coins Shut Down by FinCEN
Mike Caldwell ceases sales after regulators classify loaded physical coins as money transmission.
After producing roughly 90,000 Casascius coins containing over 83,000 BTC, Mike Caldwell received a cease-and-desist from FinCEN. Regulators ruled that embedding private keys in physical tokens and selling them constituted unlicensed money transmission. Caldwell halted new sales — ending the most famous physical-bitcoin experiment and leaving surviving Casascius coins as prized collectibles, many still unpeeled decades later.
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What else happened around this time?
Casascius Physical Bitcoins Launched
Mike Caldwell begins selling brass coins loaded with real BTC behind a tamper-evident hologram.
FinCEN Issues First Bitcoin Guidance
U.S. federal guidance classifies exchangers as money transmitters.
Silk Road Seized
FBI shuts down Silk Road and arrests Ross Ulbricht.
FBI Moves 144,336 Seized BTC On-Chain
446 transactions of exactly 324 BTC each — spelling FBI on a phone keypad.