A New York lawsuit seeking control of 3.799 million Bitcoin has run into a problem that matters far beyond one court case: some of the wallets described as "lost" are still moving funds. If that argument fails, so does a claim tied to hundreds of billions of dollars in BTC, including addresses widely linked to Satoshi Nakamoto.
The case was filed by two anonymous Wyoming LLCs using the name "Noah Doe." They asked the court to treat 39,069 inactive Bitcoin addresses as abandoned property under New York law. But since the suit was filed, 52 of those specific addresses have transferred about 34,335 BTC, worth roughly $2.48 billion at current prices. Galaxy Digital also found that 29 targeted addresses moved 12,302 BTC after they were formally served.
That on-chain activity cuts against the plaintiffs' central claim that the wallets were abandoned rather than held in long-term cold storage. Bitcoin attorney Ian Cohen argued in an amicus filing that New York lost-property law does not fit self-custodied digital assets and that control of a private key is ownership.
On June 4, Justice Kathy King stayed the case, blocking any inquest or default judgment. The plaintiffs' lawyer later asked the court to lift or narrow that stay, and Cohen responded that the court imposed it to prevent an unopposed ruling on anonymous defendants.
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Originally published by CryptoSlate on June 21, 2026.
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