A lawsuit in New York seeks to claim ownership of 39,000 dormant Bitcoin addresses, involving Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings

According to Cointelegraph, plaintiff Noah Doe and two limited liability companies from Wyoming filed a lawsuit in New York, USA, on May 1, seeking a court ruling on their ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses, citing New York State's lost property law, claiming that the relevant addresses' holdings constitute legally "abandoned property."

The addresses involved include those starting with "12c6D" associated with Satoshi Nakamoto and those starting with "1Feex" linked to the Mt. Gox hack. According to estimates by Timechain Index founder, the listed addresses hold approximately 3.7 million BTC, valued at around $28.5 billion.

However, Noveleader, chief research analyst at investment research firm Castle Labs, pointed out that even if the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, it would only be symbolic, as the Bitcoin network itself does not have a mechanism for reallocating funds without private keys. Additionally, the plaintiffs sent legal notices to P2PKH format addresses, while the involved BTC is actually stored in P2PK scripts. The analyst believes this move is "structurally flawed," which could render the abandonment notice procedure itself invalid.