A lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of New York County claims ownership of approximately $290 billion in Bitcoin, despite lacking the private keys necessary to access the funds. The plaintiff, using the pseudonym Noah Doe, along with two anonymous companies, asserts they have identified 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets, including one linked to the Mt. Gox hack. The lawsuit, filed on May 1, 2026, seeks court confirmation of ownership over these wallets, which collectively hold about 3.79 million BTC.
The plaintiff claims to have discovered these wallets using an algorithm designed to identify self-custodial wallets with no activity for at least five years. They argue that the wallets are abandoned and have submitted a list of addresses to the court. The case hinges on New York's lost property laws, with the plaintiff arguing that the wallets' "as-is value" is under $10 due to the lack of private keys, potentially allowing them to claim ownership after a year. The court has yet to rule on the matter, which raises questions about the legal status of blockchain addresses and the interpretation of ownership without private keys.
New York Lawsuit Claims Ownership of $290 Billion in Bitcoin Without Private Keys
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