CryptoSlate
A New York lawsuit by Noah Doe and two companies is using the state's lost-and-found statute to claim title to roughly 3.799 million BTC sitting in 39,069 dormant addresses, about 18% of Bitcoin's total supply. The filing leans on Article 7-B of New York's Personal Property Law, Section 257, which lets title vest in a finder after a year of unsuccessful efforts to reach the owner for property under $10, and points to an OP_RETURN notice campaign, a press release, and a claim window as proof the coins count as lost property.
Congress is moving to close that legal opening before it ever gets a courtroom ruling. Section 20216 of the July 22 CLARITY Act draft states that a self-custodied digital asset cannot become abandoned, unclaimed, or forfeited, and cannot become subject to adverse possession or finder's title, solely because its owner has not moved it or otherwise shown continued interest. May 8 and May 20 Senate drafts only protected the ability to hold a self-hosted wallet; the July 22 version goes further, extending into property law and covering whether a person still owns the coins inside that wallet once years of silence go by.
Why it matters
The provision draws a federal line at the private key. A self-custodied asset is defined as one where the owner keeps exclusive control of the keys without relying on a custodian, exchange, or intermediary, and Section 20216 preempts the state and local laws that treat years of wallet inactivity alone as grounds for transferring ownership. Custodial holdings sit on the other side of that line: exchanges, brokers, and hosted-wallet providers stay subject to existing state unclaimed-property, dormancy, reporting, and escheat rules.
The Noah Doe filing is the test case that made the provision urgent, since it explicitly builds its theory on wallets' silence, years of untouched coins with no owner surfacing. Section 20216 targets that mechanism by stripping the easiest argument a claimant could make, the idea that years of nothing happening amounts to abandonment on its own, without settling the lawsuit itself.
Frequently asked questions
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What does Section 20216 of the CLARITY Act draft actually say?
It states that a self-custodied digital asset cannot become abandoned, unclaimed, or forfeited, and cannot become subject to adverse possession or finder's title, solely because its owner has not moved it or otherwise shown continued interest. It preempts state and local laws that treat years of wallet inactivity…
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How many BTC is the Noah Doe lawsuit trying to claim?
The filing targets roughly 3.799 million BTC spread across 39,069 dormant addresses, which it puts at nearly 18% of Bitcoin's total supply. The plaintiffs argue the coins count as lost property under New York Personal Property Law Article 7-B, Section 257.
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Does the provision protect coins held on exchanges?
No. Section 20216 defines a self-custodied asset as one where the owner keeps exclusive control of the private keys without a custodian, exchange, or intermediary. The draft expressly preserves state unclaimed-property rules for custodial holdings held by exchanges, brokers, and hosted-wallet providers.
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Can the Noah Doe plaintiffs still win even if CLARITY passes?
Possibly. The plaintiffs cite police reports, OP_RETURN notices, and attempted contacts with possible owners, evidence that goes beyond pure dormancy. A court could rule their claim rests on more than silence alone, since Section 20216 only bars inactivity-based abandonment, not claims supported by additional facts.
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How does the July 22 draft differ from the May Senate drafts?
The May 8 and May 20 Senate drafts protected only the ability to use a self-hosted wallet and hold private keys, without addressing whether dormant self-custodied coins could be treated as abandoned. The July 22 Section 20216 adds property-law scope, preempting dormancy-based ownership transfer for self-custodied…
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