A New York lawsuit seeking ownership of dormant Bitcoin addresses has run into new evidence from the blockchain itself. Fifty-two of the targeted wallets moved more than $2.48 billion in BTC after the case began.
The suit was filed by two anonymous Wyoming companies operating as Noah Doe. They asked a New York court to declare 39,069 inactive addresses abandoned and award them title to 3.799 million BTC, including early coins linked to Satoshi Nakamoto.
On June 4, New York Supreme Court Justice Kathy King stayed the proceedings after receiving an amicus brief from attorney Ian Cohen. Cohen argued that New York lost-property law does not apply to self-custodied digital assets.
Plaintiffs’ attorney David Lin asked the court on June 18 to lift or narrow the stay. Cohen responded the next day, defending the stay as a court-initiated order meant to address the lack of opposing parties.
Galaxy Digital research showed that 29 of the addresses moved 12,302 BTC after being served in the case. Head of research Alex Thorn warned that a default judgment could trigger prolonged litigation over early Bitcoin holdings.
