Key facts
- A defendant in a New York lawsuit has filed a motion to dismiss the case.
- The lawsuit seeks ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses, estimated to hold 3.7 million BTC.
- The defendant argues that Bitcoin addresses are data strings and cannot be sued.
- The plaintiff claims the Bitcoin is abandoned property under New York's lost-property law.
- The defendant controls a wallet containing 5,000 BTC, valued at over $300 million.
A pseudonymous defendant, identifying as "John Doe 33," has filed a motion to dismiss a New York lawsuit that aims to claim ownership of 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses. The defendant argues that Bitcoin addresses are merely data strings and not legal entities capable of being sued or subject to court jurisdiction. The lawsuit, filed by plaintiff "Noah Doe" and two Wyoming-based LLCs, claims the Bitcoin within these addresses constitutes abandoned property. The defendant, who controls one of the wallets containing approximately 5,000 BTC valued at over $300 million, contends that the addresses have always been publicly visible on the blockchain and thus cannot be considered "found" under lost-property law. This filing challenges the legal basis of the case, which seeks to claim an estimated 3.7 million BTC, worth around $234 billion, including addresses linked to Satoshi Nakamoto and the Mt. Gox hacker.