A New York lawsuit filed in state court on May 20 seeks to reclassify hundreds of dormant Bitcoin wallets, including those tied to cryptocurrency creator Satoshi Nakamoto, as abandoned property under state law. The legal filing argues that wallets with private keys held for over one year without owner interaction may qualify for title transfer under New York’s lost-property statute. The plaintiffs, who include a pseudonymous individual named Noah Doe and Wyoming-based entities ABC Company and XYZ Company, identify 39,069 Bitcoin addresses holding approximately $293.5 billion in total value based on current market prices. This represents roughly 18% of Bitcoin’s maximum 21 million supply.
Galaxy Digital Research confirms that blockchain analyses show the median wallet in the claim contains 50 BTC (worth about $3.86 million) and the average holds 97.25 BTC ($7.5 million), contradicting the plaintiffs’ $10-per-wallet appraisal. The plaintiffs’ approach leverages the OP_RETURN blockchain feature to send legal notices to wallet holders, requiring them to claim their assets or risk declaration as abandoned property under New York’s Article 7-B of the Personal Property Law.
Gallery data reveals the target wallets include roughly 21,923 Bitcoin Development (Patoshi)-linked addresses holding approximately 1.096 million Bitcoin and a wallet associated with the 2011 Mt. Gox exchange collapse containing 79,957 BTC. Notably, the counterparty burn address with 2,131 BTC poses a legal complication, as these funds are permanently locked and cannot re-enter circulation.
As of the latest update, the defendants have yet to respond to the claims, leaving proceedings on track for a potential default judgment by late June 2026. Legal analysts caution that while a court victory may establish novel property rights frameworks in blockchain contexts, it would not enable seizure of private keys, relying instead on leverage against exchanges or custodians to enforce claims. New York’s judicial system may face novel questions about jurisdiction over decentralized systems, valuation methodologies, and service-of-process compliance via distributed networks.