CryptoSlate
A pseudonymous respondent called John Doe 33 filed a notice of appearance on June 30 in New York Supreme Court, inserting a real person into a lawsuit that had previously run against silent blockchain addresses. The case was brought by ABC Company, XYZ Company, and a plaintiff operating as Noah Doe, who are seeking legal title to roughly 3.799 million Bitcoin tied to 39,069 inactive addresses, a pool worth more than $200 billion at current prices, though the plaintiffs plead it at $10 for jurisdictional purposes. The targeted wallets include coins widely attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto and other early miners. In his filing, John Doe 33 identifies himself as a natural person with constitutionally protected property rights, explicitly stating he is not a Bitcoin address, a digital wallet, a line of source code, or any other form of inanimate data. He also reserves all defenses and is asking the court for permission to proceed under a pseudonym to avoid doxxing, extortion, and physical targeting.
Why it matters
The lawsuit asks a New York court to treat long-dormant Bitcoin wallets as abandoned personal property and transfer title to the plaintiffs, a theory built on the assumption that inactivity equals surrender. John Doe 33's filing reframes the dispute from a procedural tug-of-war over silent addresses into a constitutional question about whether a person with potential rights to those assets can be reduced to a numbered entry in a court caption. Galaxy Digital head of research Alex Thorn called the development a meaningful shift, noting that a real human being is now fighting Noah Doe as a respondent rather than merely filing amicus support. The case has also drawn organized legal resistance, including a late-May amicus brief from pro-Bitcoin attorney Ian Cohen arguing that New York's Article 7-B lost-property statute was designed for physical objects found by people, not computational scans of a public ledger.
Market impact
The legal theory is already straining against on-chain reality.
Frequently asked questions
-
Who is John Doe 33 in the Satoshi Bitcoin lawsuit?
John Doe 33 is a pseudonymous respondent who filed a notice of appearance in New York Supreme Court on June 30, identifying himself as a natural person with constitutionally protected property rights. He is contesting a plaintiffs' bid to claim title over roughly 3.799 million Bitcoin tied to 39,069 inactive addresses.
-
How much Bitcoin is the New York lost-property lawsuit targeting?
The lawsuit seeks legal title to roughly 3.799 million Bitcoin tied to 39,069 inactive addresses, worth more than $200 billion at current prices, though the plaintiffs plead the claim at $10 for statutory and jurisdictional purposes.
-
Are Satoshi Nakamoto's coins part of the dormant-Bitcoin lawsuit?
Yes. The targeted wallets include coins widely attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto and other early Bitcoin miners, making the case a direct test of whether long-dormant coins linked to Bitcoin's creator can be claimed as abandoned property.
-
Why did some of the named Bitcoin addresses move before the court appearance?
About 52 of the addresses named in the complaint transferred roughly 34,335 Bitcoin, more than $2 billion at current valuations, well before John Doe 33 appeared. The transfers undercut the plaintiffs' theory that long inactivity equals abandonment, since cold storage, lost keys, or deliberate non-use can also explain…
-
What happens next in the dormant-Bitcoin ownership case?
The case will turn on two questions: whether the court allows John Doe 33 to proceed under a pseudonym, and whether his motion to dismiss can halt the claim before any title ruling on the wallets. Either outcome could set precedent for how U.S. property law treats inactive crypto going forward.
CoinDesk
Crypto News
TheBlock
CoinTelegraph
WuBlockchain