Someone going by “Noah Doe” has walked into New York Supreme Court and essentially said: all this Bitcoin that nobody’s touched in years? It’s mine now. The lawsuit targets 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses holding approximately 3.8 million BTC, valued somewhere between $235 billion and $293 billion.
The case, initially filed on March 11, 2026, and amended on May 1, 2026, seeks a declaratory judgment under New York Personal Property Law Article 7-B, arguing that the coins in those wallets constitute “lost property.” The plaintiffs never held the private keys to any of these addresses. They can’t actually move the Bitcoin. They just want a court to say it belongs to them on paper.
What’s actually in these wallets
The addresses aren’t just random forgotten wallets. Some 21,923 addresses holding roughly 1.096 million BTC are Patoshi-pattern addresses — the wallets widely believed to belong to Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator.
The list also includes an address linked to the collapsed exchange Mt. Gox containing 79,957 BTC, plus addresses that overlap significantly with a 2025 “dusting” campaign that Galaxy Digital previously analyzed. Dusting involves sending tiny amounts of crypto to dormant wallets, often to trace ownership or test activity.
