Lawsuit Seeks Transfer of 39,000 Dormant Bitcoin Wallets

A New York civil action filed on May 1 is seeking a court ruling that ownership of more than 39,000 long-dormant Bitcoin wallets should be transferred to the plaintiff, identified as Noah Doe, and two Wyoming-based limited liability companies. The lawsuit, brought in the Supreme Court of New York, invokes the state’s Personal Property Law Article 7B, characterizing the digital assets as discovered or abandoned property rather than stolen or exchange-held funds.

According to the filing, Doe used a proprietary algorithm to identify 42,001 potentially abandoned Bitcoin addresses. He reported the findings to the New York Police Department under lost-property rules. After an outreach process, 2,932 wallets were removed from consideration, leaving 39,069 addresses at the center of the dispute. The plaintiff argues that because no valid owner has come forward despite notification, ownership should legally pass to the discoverer.

Doe attempted to notify the wallet holders through two channels. In June 2025, he embedded messages via OP_RETURN transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, directing recipients to an abandonment notice and a claims process. A public notice period then ran until...