New York lawsuit claims ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses, including addresses linked to Satoshi

ChainCatcher report, according to Cointelegraph, plaintiff Noah Doe and two Wyoming limited liability companies filed a lawsuit on May 1 in New York, USA, seeking a court ruling to establish ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses, invoking New York’s Unclaimed Property Law and arguing that the holdings in these addresses constitute legally recognized “abandoned property.” The addresses in question include those associated with Satoshi Nakamoto beginning with “12c6D” and those linked to the Mt. Gox hacker beginning with “1Feex.” According to estimates by the founder of the on-chain analysis platform Timechain Index, the listed addresses collectively hold approximately 3.7 million BTC, valued at around $285 billion. However, Noveleader, Chief Research Analyst at investment research firm Castle Labs, noted that even if the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, the judgment would be purely symbolic, as the Bitcoin network itself has no mechanism to redistribute funds without the corresponding private keys. Additionally, the plaintiffs sent legal notices to P2PKH-format addresses, while the actual BTC in question resides in P2PK scripts; this analyst considers the approach “structurally flawed,” potentially rendering the notice procedure itself invalid.