13 years ago, I bought physical Bitcoin gold bars. Early investors cashed out 100 BTC and made tens of millions of dollars in profits

According to foreign media reports, as the price of Bitcoin continues to hit new highs, an early BitcoinTalk user named "JohnGalt" recently successfully cashed in his 13-year-old Casascius physical Bitcoin gold bar and took out the 100 Bitcoin private keys stored in it, making a profit of about $10 million at the current market price.

According to JohnGalt, he bought this gold bar with a physical private key for about $500 in 2012. At that time, the unit price of Bitcoin was only $5, and it was still a niche collection among a very small number of enthusiasts. He admitted that he had tried to sell the gold bar several times in the past decade, including through auctions or private trading channels, but was frequently restricted by valuation disputes and trust issues, and the transaction was never successful.

As the price of Bitcoin recently broke through the $100,000 mark, this early holder finally made up his mind to "scratch" the gold bar, extract the private key and complete the transfer. He said: "Continuing to hold physical assets worth eight figures has become a huge risk, and cashing out is a more rational choice."

However, JohnGalt's experience also reminds the entire community of the importance of security awareness. When he posted photos of some gold bars, he did not cover the complete private key. As a result, sharp-eyed netizens used the same private key mechanism to quickly withdraw about $40,000 worth of BCH before he withdrew the Bitcoin Cash fork assets (BCH). The whole process took only 9 minutes.

Casascius 金条是早期比特币生态中的一种实体冷钱包，由物理制造商 Mike Caldwell 于 2011 年推出。它们通过封存私钥，为比特币投资者提供离线储存手段，同时具备一定收藏价值。如今，随着比特币走向主流，这些实体藏品正逐渐从“信仰象征”变为巨额资产的钥匙。

此事件不仅体现了比特币市值膨胀对早期持有者的巨大回报，也再次提醒社区关注资产保管、信息公开与分叉币提取的操作细节。