Bitcoin address from the Satoshi era moves after 14 years, suggesting the original holder remains in control

Huoxing Finance reports that a “Satoshi-era” address, which had not moved any funds since March 2011 and held 35.55 BTC (approximately $2.54 million), made a transfer this week—seen as one of the first publicly visible responses from defendants in a New York lawsuit involving approximately 3.8 million BTC (valued at around $285 billion). On-chain data shows that on June 2, the address sent 15 BTC to a new address, with the remaining 20.55 BTC retained as change. The address originally received BTC on March 27, 2011, when the price of BTC was under $1. In March of this year, a plaintiff using the pseudonym “Noah Doe,” along with two Wyoming LLCs, filed a lawsuit in a New York state court seeking ownership of approximately 3.8 million long-dormant BTC wallets under New York’s abandoned property law, positioning themselves as the “discoverers.” The court approved sending on-chain notifications to the relevant wallets via the Bitcoin OP_RETURN field. In July 2025, advisory firm Salomon Brothers Strategic Advisors sent dust transactions containing legal notice links to 39,000 wallets, including the aforementioned address, requesting holders to prove ownership within 90 days. Alex Thorn, Research Director at Galaxy Research, noted that this address corresponds to Defendant No. 38,215 in the case, stating, “Clearly, these bitcoins were never actually abandoned.” Additionally, another dormant address—1CDSyXAQxro4FPUoqAQb81642ruqDsUiNp—transferred 20 BTC (approximately $1.48 million) on the same day, though this address does not appear on Noah Doe’s lawsuit list. Analysis suggests these on-chain movements indicate that some Bitcoin from the Satoshi era, previously considered abandoned assets, remain under the control of their original holders.