A highly unusual lawsuit filed in New York seeks to establish legal ownership over 3.79 million Bitcoin (BTC) held in 39,069 dormant wallets, worth hundreds of billions of dollars at current prices. The claimant, identified only as “Noah Doe,” invokes New York’s abandoned property law, arguing that lost or unclaimed crypto may be reclaimed through the judicial system. Court documents reportedly reference NYPD filings and list wallets connected to early Bitcoin miners, Casascius physical coins, unknown holders, alleged hackers, and even addresses attributed to Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
The legal theory drew swift mockery from Ripple’s former Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz. After an X (formerly Twitter) user questioned whether a court could “approve something this dumb” and noted any ruling might have little real force, Schwartz replied: “BSV might honor it.” The jibe targeted Bitcoin SV (BSV), a fork linked to Craig Wright, implying that its more centralized governance could theoretically comply with such an order. His sarcasm underscored a core reality of decentralized networks.
Bitcoin’s architecture rests on thousands of independent nodes worldwide that enforce consensus rules. No central authority can compel the network to move coins without private keys. Even if a New York court were to rule in favor of Noah Doe, the Bitcoin protocol would almost certainly ignore the order. The only scenario where a court could have practical effect is if private keys were surrendered or if network rules were altered by force—both highly improbable. The case thus fuels a long-standing debate over how abandoned property laws apply to cryptographic assets, but for now, the Bitcoin blockchain remains beyond the reach of any single jurisdiction.
