NY Judge Halts Lawsuit Claiming 39,069 Dormant Bitcoin Wallets Until July Hearing

A New York judge has paused a lawsuit that claims ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin (BTC) wallets. The order blocks any quick victory for the anonymous plaintiffs before a court hearing on July 14.

Justice Kathy J. King signed the order on June 4. The wallets hold about 3.8 million BTC, worth roughly $235 billion at today’s prices.

What the Dormant Bitcoin Wallets Lawsuit Wants

An anonymous plaintiff called Noah Doe and two companies filed the case in March. They expanded it on May 1 to cover 39,069 wallets.

They lean on New York’s lost-and-found law. A finder can keep lost property if the owner never claims it. Courts have never applied it to crypto.

Their unnamed expert valued each wallet at under $10. Galaxy Research counters that the average listed wallet holds 97.25 BTC, about $6 million today.

The first defendant wallet holds about 79,957 BTC from the 2011 Mt. Gox hack. The Mt. Gox repayment process is still running in Japan, so the claims could collide.

Galaxy also ties about 21,900 listed addresses, with roughly 1.1 million BTC, to Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallet activity. Many sit in quantum-vulnerable Bitcoin addresses.

Why the Judge Hit Pause

The stay followed a motion by Ian R. Cohen, a New York lawyer who owns bitcoin. He asked to file a friend-of-the-court brief against the case.

Cohen argues the law covers physical objects someone can pick up and hold. Bitcoin sits on a public blockchain everyone can see, so it was never lost.

“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 wrote in his proposed brief.

He also points to a 2022 law that sends unclaimed crypto to the state, not to private finders.

On-chain data supports him. After blockchain notices went out in 2025, 339 listed wallets moved coins, echoing other Satoshi-era wallet moves.

The plaintiffs have until July 7 to respond. The July 14 hearing will decide whether the case gets its first real opposing voice.

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