A lawsuit filed in New York is trying to claim 39,069 inactive Bitcoin addresses — including early-mined coins tied to Satoshi Nakamoto — as abandoned property. The plaintiffs, operating under the pseudonym 'Noah Doe' as anonymous Wyoming LLCs, valued the entire claim at just $10. The addresses actually hold roughly 3.799 million Bitcoin, worth more than $200 billion at current prices.
The $10 claim on billions
The complaint targets a trove of wallets that haven't moved in years, including coins Satoshi mined in the network's first months. Under New York's lost-property laws, the plaintiffs argue the state should take custody of the assets. But the token $10 valuation — a legal formality to establish jurisdiction — underscores how novel the legal theory is. Attorney Ian Cohen filed an amicus brief arguing that New York's laws simply don't apply to self-custodied Bitcoin, and that the state lacks jurisdiction over cryptographic keys held on private devices.
Addresses start moving after lawsuit filed
The claim that these coins are truly 'abandoned' took a hit after the lawsuit became public. Data shows that 52 of the targeted addresses have transferred about 34,335 Bitcoin — worth $2.48 billion — since the suit was filed. Galaxy Digital's analysis found that 29 of those wallets moved 12,302 Bitcoin after being officially served with the complaint. That pattern suggests someone with access to those keys is still active, directly challenging the plaintiffs' narrative.
Legal battle over jurisdiction and crypto property
On June 4, New York Supreme Court Justice Kathy King granted a hearing to Ian Cohen and issued a stay on proceedings, preventing a default judgment while the legal questions get airtime. Plaintiffs' attorney David Lin pushed back on June 18, filing a motion to vacate or narrow the stay. Lin argued that a non-party amicus like Cohen shouldn't be allowed to halt the case. Cohen countered that the stay was the judge's own directive, not something he initiated, and pointed out the irony in the plaintiffs' logic.
The motion to vacate the stay is now pending. Galaxy Digital's head of research, Alex Thorn, has warned that if the court lets a default judgment slip through, it could grant legal title to 3.799 million Bitcoin — a ruling that would almost certainly trigger years of litigation and hang a massive overhang over the market. For now, the judge has kept the case on ice, but the clock is ticking on whether the plaintiffs can convince her to move ahead without first resolving the fundamental jurisdictional questions.
