Blockchain association Digital Chamber filed with the New York State Supreme Court an amicus brief asking the court to dismiss a lawsuit over rights to inactive Bitcoin wallets. The organization warned that treating such addresses as abandoned property would create risks for self-custody of digital assets.
According to the documents, Digital Chamber represents more than 250 market participants, including crypto exchanges, banks, investment firms, and other organizations. The association argued that if the court accepts the plaintiffs’ theory, long-term holding and a lack of transactions could be construed as evidence of abandonment.
“The plaintiffs ask to be awarded ownership of hundreds of billions of dollars in digital assets because those assets have not moved or been spent,” the brief says.
Digital Chamber emphasized that the plaintiffs did not create these addresses, do not control them, and do not have the private keys. Granting the claims would create a “cloud of uncertainty” and could affect not only the crypto industry but also traditional financial markets, the association said.
How the plaintiffs justified their claims
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Noah Doe and two Wyoming-registered companies — ABC Company and XYZ Company. They deemed the coins linked to the addresses abandoned property and asked that title to them be transferred.
According to Digital Chamber, in 2024 Noah Doe developed an algorithm to search for inactive Bitcoin wallets. He identified 42,001 addresses, copied public blockchain data to USB drives, delivered them to the NYPD 17th Precinct, and received property receipts. The plaintiffs present these actions as a “find.”
However, the association disputes that logic:
“What he ‘found’ were not the wallets themselves but electronic records of digital wallet addresses — that is, public keys.”
Then, according to the case materials, the plaintiffs sent messages to the addresses via OP_RETURN. The notices gave owners 90 days, until October 10, 2025, to show wallet activity. Of the 42,001 addresses, the complainants excluded 2,932, including 424 wallets whose owners performed on-chain actions. They labeled the remaining 39,069 addresses abandoned.
Private keys and owners
Even if the plaintiffs prevail, the problem of obtaining control over the coins without private keys remains. Digital Chamber stressed that access to the assets remains with the owners.
“The declaration the plaintiffs seek would grant paper title unconnected to either possession of or access to the property it purports to convey,” the brief states.
The first amicus curiae in the case was filed in May by Bitcoin attorney Ian Cohen. He also asked the court to dismiss the suit and argued that found-property law is designed for physical objects, not the results of scanning a public blockchain. If such assets are considered abandoned property, he said, the law provides for their transfer to the state, not a private individual.
In June, pseudonymous defendant John Doe 33 filed a motion to dismiss the claims and said he controls one of the addresses on the list. In his view, the lawsuit targets blockchain address strings, which are not legal persons and cannot be defendants in court. He also argued that the complainants are trying to pass off their own USB drives containing public data as found property.
According to Galaxy head of research Alex Thorn, John Doe 33 is linked to a wallet holding 5,000 BTC. The coins were deposited there in April 2014 and had not moved for more than 12 years. Thorn estimated the balance at about $300 million.
Dormant addresses start moving
According to Thorn, in June 2026, 31 addresses from the list moved 17,527 BTC. By comparison, in February movement occurred on five addresses totaling 4,834 BTC.
more ‘noah doe’ coins moving.. these ones had been dormant for almost 15 years
the pace of dormant coins claimed by ‘noah doe’ moving onchain has been accelerating month over month https://t.co/OQ0rpzycdk pic.twitter.com/P2s07yYJcO
— Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) July 5, 2026
On July 5, address 1KV47 transferred 30 BTC worth about $1.88 million. It was the first movement on the address in nearly 15 years — since August 2011.
🌚 Awakened — dormant 14+ years
30.00 BTC ($1.88M) untouched since first received 2011-08-07 (14.9y ago) — just moved in block 956627Address: 1KV47ho8CG2vcTtBQwkfNCgzUVBuBeZkLG
Attribution: Noah Doe #38530 · Salomon Client Dusted💰 Realized PnL: +$1.84M (+719,353% gain) -…
— Galaxy Research (@glxyresearch) July 4, 2026
According to court filings, the 39,069 inactive addresses hold about 3.799 million BTC. The list includes addresses that public sources link to Satoshi Nakamoto, as well as address 1Feex, associated with the Mt. Gox hack. The identity of whoever controls the 1Feex private key is unknown.
CryptoQuant called the wave of sales of “old” bitcoins the “largest release” of long-term Bitcoin supply in history.
