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A New York Supreme Court judge has temporarily paused one of the most audacious legal battles in cryptocurrency history — a lawsuit seeking ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets collectively holding an estimated 3.8 million BTC, valued at roughly $235 billion. Justice Kathy J. King signed the stay order on June 4, 2026, blocking any quick default judgment while the court prepares for a critical hearing on July 14.
The Lawsuit: A Novel Legal Theory
Filed on March 11, 2026, and expanded on May 1 under the caption ABC Company, XYZ Company, and Noah Doe v. John Does 1-39,069, the case was brought by an anonymous plaintiff known only as "Noah Doe" along with two Wyoming LLCs. The plaintiffs argue that the dormant wallets qualify as legally "abandoned" property under New York Personal Property Law Article 7-B — the state's lost-and-found statute.
Noah Doe claims to have developed a proprietary algorithm that identified these wallets based on what he describes as a security vulnerability, making their owners permanently unable to access the funds. Between December 2024 and April 2025, he delivered lists of wallet addresses to the NYPD's 17th Precinct on USB drives, and directed a cyber expert to embed OP_RETURN messages on the Bitcoin blockchain directing wallet holders to a webpage — giving them 90 days to prove their wallets were not abandoned.

The Opposition: An Amicus Brief That Changed Everything
The case took a decisive turn when New York attorney Ian R. Cohen filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on May 29, arguing forcefully against the plaintiffs' legal theory. His intervention was enough to prompt Justice King to freeze the proceedings.
Cohen's core argument is straightforward: New York's lost-and-found law applies strictly to tangible, physical items — not to blockchain addresses visible on a public distributed ledger. He further contended that a wallet owner who loses access to their private key experiences an "involuntary deprivation of access," not a voluntary forfeiture. As he wrote in his brief: "A wallet that has been dormant for ten years, whose private key is stored on a steel plate in a bank vault, is not abandoned property. It is securely held property."
Cohen also raised procedural and jurisdictional challenges. He noted that New York's Abandoned Property Law — amended in 2022 — explicitly routes unclaimed crypto assets to the State Comptroller, not to private finders. He challenged the adequacy of OP_RETURN messages as legal notice, particularly for deceased holders, non-English speakers, and users of older Bitcoin address formats. He also argued that Bitcoin has no legal situs in New York, and that most wallet holders are unlikely to be New York residents.

Wallets Are Moving — Undermining the "Abandoned" Claim

Perhaps the most damaging development for the plaintiffs has been a wave of on-chain activity from wallets named in the lawsuit. On June 6, 2026, a wallet dormant since June 17, 2011 — silent for more than 15 years — transferred 47.26 BTC, worth approximately $2.88 million. A day earlier, Galaxy Research flagged a wallet inactive since 2019 that moved 1,878.57 BTC valued at $114.16 million. In total, 339 listed wallets have moved coins since blockchain notices were issued in 2025.
These movements fundamentally challenge the lawsuit's premise. If wallets listed as "abandoned" are actively transacting, the plaintiffs' algorithm — and their entire legal theory — is called into question.
High-Profile Wallets in the Crosshairs
The scale and notoriety of the wallets named in the complaint have amplified scrutiny of the case. Among the 39,069 addresses is the infamous "1Feex" wallet, long linked by public reporting to the 2011 Mt. Gox hack. Galaxy Research has also identified several addresses displaying Satoshi-era "Patoshi" mining patterns — widely associated with Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator. Cohen has additionally flagged overlaps with wallets tied to ongoing legal proceedings, raising jurisdictional concerns about competing ownership claims.
What's Next: A Landmark Hearing on July 14
The plaintiffs have until July 7 to file their response to Cohen's brief. The July 14 hearing before Justice King will determine whether the amicus brief is formally admitted — and may signal the court's broader receptiveness to the plaintiffs' legal theory. If the case proceeds, it would be the first time any U.S. court has applied a lost-and-found property statute to cryptocurrency, potentially setting a sweeping precedent for how dormant digital assets are treated under American law.
For now, the freeze holds. And with wallets from Bitcoin's earliest days suddenly springing back to life, the plaintiffs may find their most powerful adversary isn't a lawyer — it's the blockchain itself.
Sources: CryptoTimes, BeInCrypto, Bitcoin.com News, CoinLaw, CryptoNews — June 8, 2026
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