'Lost' 2011 Bitcoin Suddenly Moves

A long-dormant cache of Bitcoin, which has been untouched since 2011, has suddenly moved on-chain.

This has reignited intrigue surrounding a rather controversial legal battle playing out in New York.

The 47.26 $BTC was transferred after sitting dormant for 15 years.

The Noah Doe case

As reported by U.Today, the lawsuit was recently filed in the New York County Supreme Court under the pseudonym “Noah Doe”. It seeks quiet title to over 3.7 million $BTC across more than 39,000 dormant addresses. The total value of these assets is an eye-popping $293.5 billion.

New York’s lost-and-found property statute is being used in an attempt to claim legal ownership of the addresses.

The list includes roughly 21,923 Satoshi-era “Patoshi” addresses linked to Satoshi Nakamoto’s personal stash.

An unnamed expert for the plaintiffs appraised each of the 39,069 addresses as being worth less than $10. It allows the plaintiffs to bypass a lengthy police holding period.

Earlier, the plaintiff executed 98 batch transactions, sending 546 satoshis to all 39,069 addresses with a link to the legal pleadings. This is likely a highly coordinated operation.

The reawakened coins

The recent movement of the 47.26 $BTC is rather notable because the address in question (18sLgPeB9wQVrE8JoWqtKtnucbsx3Lw1m7) is named as Defendant Address #37923 in the Noah Doe case.

As noted by Galaxy Research, dormancy is a feature of Bitcoin, not a sign of abandonment.”

A victory for the plaintiffs would not grant them the private keys to access the coins, but a court declaration of ownership could be weaponized to freeze assets or encumber funds.

The most recent movement of Address #37923 shows that at least one of these “abandoned” owners is very much alive and well.