U.S. man sues for ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses worth $29 billion

Huo Xing Finance reports, according to Cryptopolitan, a plaintiff pseudonymously named "Noah Doe" has filed a lawsuit in a New York court seeking ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets, including those associated with Satoshi Nakamoto, containing an estimated 3.7 million Bitcoin worth approximately $290 billion. On May 1, the plaintiff submitted a 901-page legal filing through two Wyoming shell companies, ABC Company and XYZ Company, claiming these Bitcoin qualify as "abandoned property" under New York’s unclaimed property law. Sani, founder of the on-chain analysis platform Timechain Index, pointed out a fundamental flaw in the lawsuit: most Bitcoin from the Satoshi era are stored in pay-to-public-key format, yet the plaintiff sent legal notices to the corresponding pay-to-public-key-hash addresses, most of which hold no balance. Even if the plaintiff obtains a favorable ruling, the Bitcoin network cannot transfer funds without the private keys, rendering the judgment unenforceable. David Schwartz, Chief Technology Officer of Ripple, stated that such a ruling would have no practical impact on the Bitcoin network.