A Bitcoin address at the center of a high-stakes New York ownership lawsuit has transferred 40 BTC after remaining inactive since November 5, 2011.
Galaxy Research identified the sending address as Noah Doe #38097 and valued the transfer at approximately $3.1 million. The transaction was confirmed in Bitcoin block 965,330 on September 3, 2026. It demonstrates that someone controls the associated private key, but public blockchain data does not reveal the person's identity or confirm a sale.
The address is one of 39,069 allegedly abandoned Bitcoin wallets named in the case ABC Company, XYZ Company and Noah Doe v. John Does 1–39,069, filed in New York County Supreme Court under Index No. 153119/2026. Plaintiffs are seeking title to wallets estimated to hold between 3.7 million and 3.8 million BTC, worth roughly $293 billion. The list reportedly includes addresses attributed to Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, an address tied to the Mt. Gox theft, and an unspendable burn address.
Galaxy calculated that the moved Bitcoin had appreciated by about 2,571,899% since 2011, when BTC traded near $3. Around the time of the transfer, Bitcoin traded near $81,100, up about 4.3% over 24 hours, though no evidence linked the broader market move to the transaction. The plaintiffs have previously dropped addresses that became active after the case began, including 44 removed in July, according to Galaxy Research's Alex Thorn.
The case remains unresolved. The Digital Chamber, the Bitcoin Policy Institute and attorney Ian Cohen have argued that inactivity does not prove abandonment and that an address is not property that can simply be found on a public blockchain. A New York judge previously paused proceedings, and the court has not awarded any disputed coins. The latest movement may lead the plaintiffs to remove this address from their requested relief, but it does not automatically end the broader lawsuit.
