New York Lawsuit Seeks to Confirm Legal Ownership of 39,069 Bitcoin Wallets

[zasad@]

https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/327042078140002
"A lawsuit in New York was filed on May 1, 2026, by plaintiff Noah Doe who seeks to establish legal ownership of 39,069 long-dormant Bitcoin wallet addresses. The complaint cites Section 7-b of New York's personal property law, stating that these wallets have become 'abandoned' property due to security vulnerabilities that prevented the original owners from accessing their funds. Doe claims he discovered these wallets in October 2024 and developed an algorithm to identify wallets that meet the criteria for abandonment. He reported this to the NYPD and spent a year searching for the original owners. The lawsuit requests that the court confirm Doe and his two assignee companies (ABC Corp and XYZ Corp) as the legitimate owners of these wallets and their contents. On December 1, 2025, Doe transferred ownership of all but 18 wallets to ABC Corp, which then transferred 17.7% of the rights to XYZ Corp. According to estimates from the founder of blockchain analytics platform Timechain Index, the total holding in these wallets is approximately 3.7 million Bitcoins, worth about $285 billion at current prices."

AI:
"Noah Doe developed an algorithm for finding Bitcoin addresses that hadn't been touched in a while. The sample included addresses that had been dormant for at least five years, didn't look like exchange wallets, and showed no activity even during BTC's strong rally.

➠ In total, he found approximately 42,000 inactive addresses. He saved their data to USB drives and submitted them to the 17th Precinct of the NYPD as "lost property."

➠ He then began the process of notifying owners: through a public campaign and on-chain messages using OP_RETURN.

➠ According to the plaintiff, some owners did respond: 424 addresses performed an on-chain action to demonstrate that the wallets were not abandoned. Other addresses were excluded for other reasons. However, 39,069 addresses, according to Noah Doe, remain unclaimed.

➠ Now he's citing New York's lost and found property law. The logic is simple: if someone finds property, reports the information to the police, the time limit for tracing the owner has passed, and the owner hasn't come forward, then the finder can claim the property.

The key point: Noah Doe didn't find the private keys. Even if the court upholds his rights to these wallets, he won't be able to withdraw the 3.8 million BTC."

New Craig Wright

[PrivacyG]

We were in a big need of some Bitcoin drama entertainment.  Now Noah Doe only needs to file a lawsuit against Wright or the other way around.  The Great Battle of Satoshis!

The Wright era was a lot of fun AND had the great advantage of some of the most toxic part of our community moving to his Shit Coin too.  Good times.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

As I posted in the now locked dupe of this topic, from the legal filing:

Venue is also proper in New York County pursuant to CPLR § 508 because the found property that is the subject of this action was found in and is located in New York County.

Um, the property is NOT LOCATED in New York. It is data stored on the internet and is not in ANY particular physical location. The addresses are stored in the myriad of independently owned & operated BTC nodes around the world.

With abandoned bank accounts, stock & bonds, etc. they are held by businesses which in turn ARE located in or registered to a physical location. Claims against them can be filed in the jurisdictions where they are located. That is obviously not the case with BTC.

______________________________________________

Even if the filing somehow is accepted for trial and the person wins, then what? Without the private keys Noah can't access the coins. Does he plan on just holding them until a big enough QC is built that could break them? Perhaps track down and sue any rightful owner that someday moves the coins to a new wallet? Sue the BTC devs to force a code hack to let him get the coins?

The CW trials have already established that claiming ownership of the coins REQUIRES having the private key(s) which Noah does not have and can not ever get.....

[goldkingcoiner]

Another rage-baiting Faketoshi who thinks this is going to give him the publicity his ego so desperately demands...

I wonder if there is a way to use this against him? Teach him a lesson? So tired of seeing these egomaniacs defiling Bitcoin's name for their own selfish sakes and not only that, doing so in the most disgusting way.

This is why I am against POS, Knots or any other obvious traps to destroy Bitcoin and centralize the blockchain. Not your keys, not your coins. End of discussion.

[(BTC)]

Even if the filing somehow is accepted for trial and the person wins, then what? Without the private keys Noah can't access the coins. Does he plan on just holding them until a big enough QC is built that could break them?

This is the only logical explanation for his legal crusade, IMO. He's a Quantum FUDer . What a joke!

[hugeblack]

Unless there is a court order, it is a mistake to respond to OP_RETURN messages you receive from an unknown person; I would choose to ignore them.

Even if the filing somehow is accepted for trial and the person wins, then what? Without the private keys Noah can't access the coins. Does he plan on just holding them until a big enough QC is built that could break them? Perhaps track down and sue any rightful owner that someday moves the coins to a new wallet? Sue the BTC devs to force a code hack to let him get the coins?

I completely agree; such methods might work for traditional things, but it is a mistake to generalize them to Bitcoin.

[MarryWithBTC]

AI:
"Noah Doe developed an algorithm for finding Bitcoin addresses that hadn't been touched in a while. The sample included addresses that had been dormant for at least five years, didn't look like exchange wallets, and showed no activity even during BTC's strong rally.

➠ In total, he found approximately 42,000 inactive addresses. He saved their data to USB drives and submitted them to the 17th Precinct of the NYPD as "lost property."

Recently I read on the social media where a dormant wallet for about 16 years resurrected and moved the fund to exchange. 16 years is way lengthy than 5yrs. I know of people who are hodling for more than 5 years.

Besides, have we forgotten the advise of Satoshi to treat lost coins as donations to the network?

➠ Now he's citing New York's lost and found property law. The logic is simple: if someone finds property, reports the information to the police, the time limit for tracing the owner has passed, and the owner hasn't come forward, then the finder can claim the property.

The law in UK seem a bit non universal. I know some abandoned houses in my country, should I go claiming them if their owners are unavailable?

The key point: Noah Doe didn't find the private keys. Even if the court upholds his rights to these wallets, he won't be able to withdraw the 3.8 million BTC."

New Craig Wright

Who knows if he has started his own quantum rush. He could be developing a powerful quantum computer.

[yhiaali3]

I wonder how much time this idiot spent tracking down 39,069 Bitcoin wallet addresses and messaging their owners through a public campaign and blockchain messages using OP_RETURN??!!!

Either this man is crazy or he has too much free time to spend on this work from which he will most likely gain nothing. The other thing is that the lack of response from wallet owners to his correspondence does not mean that this wallet is actually abandoned or has no owners, but it may mean that they want to maintain their privacy or that they simply did not see the messages demanding proof of ownership.

[zasad@]

AI:
"Noah Doe developed an algorithm for finding Bitcoin addresses that hadn't been touched in a while. The sample included addresses that had been dormant for at least five years, didn't look like exchange wallets, and showed no activity even during BTC's strong rally.

➠ In total, he found approximately 42,000 inactive addresses. He saved their data to USB drives and submitted them to the 17th Precinct of the NYPD as "lost property."

Recently I read on the social media where a dormant wallet for about 16 years resurrected and moved the fund to exchange. 16 years is way lengthy than 5yrs. I know of people who are hodling for more than 5 years.

Besides, have we forgotten the advise of Satoshi to treat lost coins as donations to the network?

➠ Now he's citing New York's lost and found property law. The logic is simple: if someone finds property, reports the information to the police, the time limit for tracing the owner has passed, and the owner hasn't come forward, then the finder can claim the property.

The law in UK seem a bit non universal. I know some abandoned houses in my country, should I go claiming them if their owners are unavailable?

The key point: Noah Doe didn't find the private keys. Even if the court upholds his rights to these wallets, he won't be able to withdraw the 3.8 million BTC."

New Craig Wright

Who knows if he has started his own quantum rush. He could be developing a powerful quantum computer.

Before claiming ownership of any BTC address, make sure it's not a criminal address.
Craig Wright claimed in his lawsuit that this address belongs to him.
1FeexV6bAHb8ybZjqQMjJrcCrHGW9sb6uF
And stolen bitcoins from the Mt. Gox exchange were transferred to this address. The bitcoins are still there.
I don't understand why the victims of the Mt. Gox hack haven't filed a lawsuit against Craig Wright

[noorman0]

Perhaps he is competing against QC developments, he must win legal rights to those addresses before this technology can actually move bitcoins within them technically without any justified ownership status at the outset.

[m2017]

https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/327042078140002
"A lawsuit in New York was filed on May 1, 2026, by plaintiff Noah Doe who seeks to establish legal ownership of 39,069 long-dormant Bitcoin wallet addresses. The complaint cites Section 7-b of New York's personal property law, stating that these wallets have become 'abandoned' property due to security vulnerabilities that prevented the original owners from accessing their funds. Doe claims he discovered these wallets in October 2024 and developed an algorithm to identify wallets that meet the criteria for abandonment. He reported this to the NYPD and spent a year searching for the original owners. The lawsuit requests that the court confirm Doe and his two assignee companies (ABC Corp and XYZ Corp) as the legitimate owners of these wallets and their contents. On December 1, 2025, Doe transferred ownership of all but 18 wallets to ABC Corp, which then transferred 17.7% of the rights to XYZ Corp. According to estimates from the founder of blockchain analytics platform Timechain Index, the total holding in these wallets is approximately 3.7 million Bitcoins, worth about $285 billion at current prices."

Am I the only one who sees this event as a "triumph of idiocy"?

AI:
"Noah Doe developed an algorithm for finding Bitcoin addresses that hadn't been touched in a while. The sample included addresses that had been dormant for at least five years, didn't look like exchange wallets, and showed no activity even during BTC's strong rally.

Simply put, this smart guy found the addresses of the holders and decided that he could claim ownership (just because he wanted to).

➠ In total, he found approximately 42,000 inactive addresses. He saved their data to USB drives and submitted them to the 17th Precinct of the NYPD as "lost property."

Why did he go straight to Satoshi with this USB flash drive (for his blessing to be called the owner of these 42,000 addresses)?

In the same way, he could go to any bank and claim rights to deposits that have not been used for a long time (but there is a nuance that in this case, ownership rights are transferred to the bank).

➠ Now he's citing New York's lost and found property law. The logic is simple: if someone finds property, reports the information to the police, the time limit for tracing the owner has passed, and the owner hasn't come forward, then the finder can claim the property.

Why is he being petty and not claiming his right to Satoshi’s wallet?

The key point: Noah Doe didn't find the private keys. Even if the court upholds his rights to these wallets, he won't be able to withdraw the 3.8 million BTC."

Whoever claims the right to bitcoin, the true owner is the one who has access (not your keys...).

New Craig Wright

New idiot. This will be more correct.

[zasad@]

..

The key point: Noah Doe didn't find the private keys. Even if the court upholds his rights to these wallets, he won't be able to withdraw the 3.8 million BTC."

Whoever claims the right to bitcoin, the true owner is the one who has access (not your keys...).

New Craig Wright

New idiot. This will be more correct.

I don't know the true purpose of these actions. As long as the bitcoins are stored in non-custodial wallets, this idiot won't get anything.

But if he wins the lawsuit and the coins suddenly end up in custodial wallets, then he can file claims against the custodial service and have a good chance of getting the coins back.

[NotATether]

Anonymous person tries to be Craig Wright 2.0.

I still remember when a guy with 100 of the wallets CSW claimed were his signed a message saying that he was a liar and a fraud.

Now CSW is on the run, nowhere to be seen with a jail sentence hanging over his head.

A lesson in not poking the bear.

[2stout]

Some people get creative in their means of wealth extraction, I mean theft.  Seems to be a bridge to nowhere, except in the cases of CEX's.  It could get interested here because they actually do have the keys, and if it's determined the CEX would have to comply with said abandonment order then it appears transfer could occur.  So shitty if so.

[MarryWithBTC]

I don't know the true purpose of these actions. As long as the bitcoins are stored in non-custodial wallets, this idiot won't get anything.

But if he wins the lawsuit and the coins suddenly end up in custodial wallets, then he can file claims against the custodial service and have a good chance of getting the coins back.

Who knows if you have guessed well the purpose of his actions. There is no better reason than this and pre-quantum preparation. The main issue is that the real owners of the coins might not be aware of his lawsuit, if they, whenever they want to move it, they'll go through the DEXes.

Anonymous person tries to be Craig Wright 2.0.

I still remember when a guy with 100 of the wallets CSW claimed were his signed a message saying that he was a liar and a fraud.

Now CSW is on the run, nowhere to be seen with a jail sentence hanging over his head.

A lesson in not poking the bear.

Noah appear to be wiser than Craig, he didn't go for the bitcoin of Satoshi, rather he went for mini-satoshis that will not make so much waves and he is probably not going to be arrested. The worse scenario is that he loss the case.

[zasad@]

I don't know the true purpose of these actions. As long as the bitcoins are stored in non-custodial wallets, this idiot won't get anything.

But if he wins the lawsuit and the coins suddenly end up in custodial wallets, then he can file claims against the custodial service and have a good chance of getting the coins back.

Who knows if you have guessed well the purpose of his actions. There is no better reason than this and pre-quantum preparation. The main issue is that the real owners of the coins might not be aware of his lawsuit, if they, whenever they want to move it, they'll go through the DEXes.

Ten years ago, exchanges didn't have KYC procedures, and anyone could send large sums of money to an exchange. Now, any transaction over $100,000 will be verified by the exchange, so I don't think crypto millionaires are foolish enough to fall into such a trap and send coins to an exchange without the necessary checks.

[caroasi]

As I posted in the now locked dupe of this topic, from the legal filing:

Venue is also proper in New York County pursuant to CPLR § 508 because the found property that is the subject of this action was found in and is located in New York County.

Um, the property is NOT LOCATED in New York. It is data stored on the internet and is not in ANY particular physical location. The addresses are stored in the myriad of independently owned & operated BTC nodes around the world.

With abandoned bank accounts, stock & bonds, etc. they are held by businesses which in turn ARE located in or registered to a physical location. Claims against them can be filed in the jurisdictions where they are located. That is obviously not the case with BTC.

______________________________________________

Even if the filing somehow is accepted for trial and the person wins, then what? Without the private keys Noah can't access the coins. Does he plan on just holding them until a big enough QC is built that could break them? Perhaps track down and sue any rightful owner that someday moves the coins to a new wallet? Sue the BTC devs to force a code hack to let him get the coins?

The CW trials have already established that claiming ownership of the coins REQUIRES having the private key(s) which Noah does not have and can not ever get.....

The term you want to check for this case is Legal Situs. There is the general rule of thumb "possession is 90% of the law" but of course a 90% answer is not considered an answer in law at all. The fact that the company is headquartered in New York is likely to be the most relevant fact in terms of location of the Bitcoins. Any external location would generally have to be established by a contract that pre-dates the lawsuit date.