Bitcoin Lawsuit Over $226B Satoshi-Era Dormant BTC Gets July Hearing Date

A New York court has set a July hearing date in a Bitcoin lawsuit that seeks ownership of thousands of dormant BTC wallets. Some of these wallets are believed to be linked to Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin Lawsuit Seeks Control Over $226 Billion In Dormant BTC Holdings

According to the court records, the action was brought by Noah Doe and Wyoming-based companies ABC Company and XYZ Company. In this suit, they are seeking to claim 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets.

The wallets contained an estimated 3.7 million BTC, valued at approximately $286 billion at the time of the lawsuit, the complaint states. The market value of the holdings is about $226 billion at current market prices.

Plaintiffs argue that under New York law, the addresses are deemed abandoned property. The problem with the wallets has prevented the original owners from being able to access or spend the Bitcoin, meaning that they are permanently unused, they argue. These addresses are reported to the New York Police Department and should be dealt with like unclaimed property or missing property, the filing says.

The wallets in the lawsuit include addresses tied to Satoshi Nakamoto. Further, it targets the “1Feex” wallet, where funds were stolen in the Mt. Gox hack.

Court Sets Hearing Date

Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn spotlighted that the court has set a heating date in the Bitcoin case. The filing, made June 5 at the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, 60 Centre Street, schedules a hearing for July 14 at 10:30 a.m. before Justice Kathy J. King.

Moreover, the order calls for the parties to appear and explain why the Court should deny leave for attorney Ian R. Cohen to proceed in the case as amicus curiae and for his brief in opposition to the plaintiff’s claims to be accepted.

The court also set a June 18 deadline for service of the motion papers and July 7 for opposition to the motion in the Bitcoin lawsuit. The order also provides that proceedings in regard to the Plaintiffs’ declaratory judgment claim “hereby STAYED pending the hearing and determination of this motion.”

Meanwhile, Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has criticized Noah Doe’s move to file a suit against dormant BTC holdings. He questioned the legal basis of this Bitcoin lawsuit.

Further, Schwartz wrote on X that the case’s “most serious flaw” is that it alleges jurisdiction because the property is allegedly located in New York.

He also said that there was “there’s no basis for the court to have jurisdiction” over the dormant BTC wallets. Schwartz added that the theory is “comically bad.”