Bitcoin Address Moves After Nearly 15 Years of Inactivity, Linked to New York 'Sleeping Bitcoin' Ownership Lawsuit

07/06 10:21

On July 6, a Bitcoin address that had been inactive for nearly 15 years recently conducted its first transaction, transferring 30 BTC, valued at approximately $1.88 million at current prices. On-chain data from Galaxy Research indicates that the address '1KV47' had not made any transfers since it received 30 BTC in August 2011, until it transferred funds for the first time last Saturday local time. This address is one of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses involved in a lawsuit in New York. The plaintiffs, 'Noah Doe' and two companies registered in Wyoming, are attempting to claim ownership of the Bitcoin in these long-inactive addresses under New York's lost property law. Sani, founder of the analysis platform Timechain Index, stated that these addresses collectively hold about 3.7 million BTC, worth approximately $234 billion, including addresses widely believed to belong to Satoshi Nakamoto. Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, noted a significant increase in activity among dormant addresses related to this lawsuit, with 31 addresses transferring 17,527 BTC in June, compared to only 5 addresses transferring 4,834 BTC in February of this year. However, the legal community generally considers the lawsuit's basis to be weak. Last Friday local time, a defendant claiming to control one of the addresses, 'John Doe 33', filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that a Bitcoin address is merely a data string and not a subject that can be sued. Edwin Mata, CEO and lawyer at the tokenization platform Brickken, stated that mere inactivity of an address does not prove that the asset has been abandoned. According to property law, establishing that property has been abandoned typically requires proof that the owner had a clear intention to relinquish ownership rights, and dormant addresses may simply be in long-term cold storage, have lost private keys, or the holder may have chosen to hold long-term, which is insufficient to support the plaintiffs' claims.

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