New York Lawsuit Takes Aim At 3.79 Million Dormant Bitcoin
A lawsuit filed in New York by "Noah Doe" and two Wyoming LLCs seeks a court declaration that approximately 39,069 long-dormant Bitcoin wallets, allegedly holding about 3.79 million BTC, are legally abandoned property. The plaintiffs claim to have identified the wallets, reported them to the NYPD, and conducted a notification campaign via blockchain messages and a webpage. They argue this satisfies New York's lost-property laws, transferring ownership rights to them. The claim includes addresses linked to Satoshi Nakamoto and early miners, though the complaint itself does not specify these attributions or the total BTC amount. The case centers on the novel legal argument that inactive self-custodied crypto addresses constitute recoverable abandoned property, despite the practical impossibility of accessing the funds without private keys. The campaign was connected to Salomon Brothers Strategic Advisors, a firm separate from the historic Wall Street entity.
bitcoinist05/25 14:31
