{"id":920900,"date":"2026-07-19T02:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T07:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/19\/judge-freezes-controversial-bid-to-claim-us234-billion-in-dormant-bitcoin-wallets\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T02:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T07:15:08","slug":"judge-freezes-controversial-bid-to-claim-us234-billion-in-dormant-bitcoin-wallets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/19\/judge-freezes-controversial-bid-to-claim-us234-billion-in-dormant-bitcoin-wallets\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Freezes Controversial Bid to Claim US$234 Billion in Dormant Bitcoin Wallets"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div id=\"blockquote-block_0d4a2443892192ec06003d996f77d1bd\">\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span>A New York judge has paused a lawsuit seeking ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets holding an estimated 3.8 million BTC.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span>The plaintiffs are attempting to use New York\u2019s lost-property laws to claim inactive wallets, a legal theory not previously applied to blockchain assets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span>Attorney Ian R. Cohen argues the law was designed for tangible property and that existing virtual currency legislation already addresses dormant crypto holdings.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.com.au\/news\/lawsuit-targets-dormant-bitcoin-wallets-in-bid-to-claim-abandoned-crypto-fortune-133907\/\">lawsuit<\/a> attempting to secure ownership of 39,069 dormant <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.com.au\/category\/bitcoin\/\">Bitcoin<\/a> wallets has been paused by a New York Supreme Court judge, delaying any effort to obtain a default judgment until at least a 14 July hearing. The addresses are estimated to contain roughly 3.8 million BTC, valued at around US$234 billion (AU$325.26 billion).<\/p>\n<p>The action was filed by anonymous plaintiffs who argue that New York\u2019s lost-and-found statute can be used to transfer ownership of long-inactive wallets to a finder when the original owner fails to reclaim them. The approach represents a novel legal argument, as the law has not previously been used to claim <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.com.au\/category\/blockchain\/\">blockchain<\/a>-based assets.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Kathy J. King issued the stay on 4 June, suspending further proceedings relating to the plaintiffs\u2019 request for a declaration of ownership. The court will hear arguments in July regarding a motion filed by attorney Ian R. Cohen to participate as amicus curiae.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.com.au\/news\/us-says-it-has-seized-us1-billion-in-iranian-crypto-assets-133941\/\">US Says It Has Seized US$1 Billion in Iranian Crypto Assets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-amicus-brief-targets-novel-crypto-theory\">Amicus Brief Targets Novel Crypto Theory\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>Cohen\u2019s proposed brief challenges the foundation of the lawsuit, arguing that New York\u2019s lost-property framework assumes possession of a tangible item and cannot be extended to Bitcoin addresses recorded on a public blockchain. He also contends that blockchain addresses were never hidden from public view and therefore cannot be considered lost property.<\/p>\n<p>The brief additionally cites a 2022 amendment to New York\u2019s Abandoned Property Law that established a process for handling dormant virtual currency through the State Comptroller. Cohen argues this legislative framework, rather than the lost-and-found statute, addresses dormant cryptocurrency assets.<\/p>\n<p>The wallets named in the lawsuit include the \u201c1Feex\u201d address linked to the 2011 Mt. Gox hack, along with addresses that Galaxy Research says correspond to early Bitcoin-era \u201cPatoshi\u201d patterns associated with Bitcoin\u2019s creator.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.com.au\/news\/crypto-fueled-peptide-boom-surges-past-us100m-as-biohacking-meets-looksmaxxing-133982\/\">Crypto-Fueled Peptide Boom Surges Past US$100M as Biohacking Meets Looksmaxxing<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.com.au\/news\/judge-freezes-controversial-bid-to-claim-us234-billion-in-dormant-bitcoin-wallets-133995\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A New York judge has paused a lawsuit seeking ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets holding an estimated 3.8 million BTC. The plaintiffs are attempting to use New York\u2019s lost-property laws to claim inactive wallets, a legal theory not previously applied to blockchain assets. Attorney Ian R. Cohen argues the law was designed for tangible<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":920901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[302,559],"tags":[7638,5610],"class_list":["post-920900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-freezes","category-judge","tag-freezes","tag-judge"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}