A lawsuit filed in New York on March 11 by a pseudonymous plaintiff who goes by “Noah Doe” and two Wyoming LLCs (ABC Company and XYZ Company) is seeking a court declaration that they are the legal owners of about 3.8 million Bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately $293 billion, lying in dormant addresses.
The lawsuit invokes Article 7-B of the New York Personal Property Law, a law about lost-and-found property. According to the law, somebody who reports lost property to the authorities and attempts to find the owner but finds no response within a set period can eventually claim legal title to the reported property.
The lawsuit by “Noah Doe” claims that 3.8 million Bitcoin residing in 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses are “lost property.” The plaintiff filed the details of these addresses on USB drives and delivered them to the NYPD’s 17th Precinct in staggered submissions between December 2024 and April 2025.
The plaintiff then sent OP_RETURN messages, impelling holders to claim ownership of these wallets within 90 days, or bitcoins held in them would be considered lost property.
Bitcoin at the Center of Lawsuit Move On-chain
One of the Bitcoin wallets that received the OP_RETURN message is 1LwWtSs7tMCwcRczQd5kVMv3xpWw6w4Sxe.
The said wallet is from the Satoshi era. The wallet received 35.55 Bitcoin on March 27, 2011, when Bitcoin was worth less than a dollar.
The wallet sent 15 BTC to a new address, according to mempool.space, which also said that the owner of the wallet kept the remaining 20.55 BTC in a transaction recorded on block 952,104 at 16:46 UTC on June 2.
Another Satori-era wallet, 18sLgPeB9wQVrE8JoWqtKtnucbsx3Lw1m7, first received 47.25 Bitcoin on June 17, 2011. After being dormant for nearly 15 years, the wallet finally moved 47.25 Bitcoin in a transaction recorded on the block 952,642 at 00:52 UTC on June 7.
The on-chain research platform Galaxy Research flagged both transactions, with research head Alex Thorn noting that many coins from 2011, claimed as “lost” in the New York lawsuit, are not “abandoned” and are “awakening and moving onchain.”
Lawsuit Now Challenged
New York attorney Ian R. Cohen on May 29 filed a proposed order to show cause with an amicus curiae brief before Judge Kathy King in the New York County Supreme Court.
The independent brief challenges the lawsuit of “Noah Doe”, emphasizing that Article 7-B is limited to tangible objects and doesn’t extend to information listed on a globally distributed blockchain.
As such, Bitcoin cannot be physically deposited with the police. Dormancy doesn’t automatically translate into abandonment, says Cohen as he put forward his arguments.
“Abandonment requires intentional relinquishment of ownership and an external act manifesting that intent,” the amicus argues. “Mere inactivity, no matter how prolonged, is not abandonment.”
Judge King halted any move toward a default judgment on June 5 and scheduled a July 14 hearing to consider Cohen’s amicus motion.
