New lawsuit claims Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin is “Lost Property” worth under $10 per wallet
A New York lawsuit is trying to classify 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses as abandoned lost property and transfer them to a pseudonymous plaintiff and two Wyoming entities. The addresses allegedly hold about 3.8 million BTC, including roughly 21,923 early Patoshi-pattern wallets linked to Satoshi Nakamoto, plus coins tied to Mt. Gox and a burn address. The claim uses New York lost-property law and argues each wallet is worth under $10 because the private keys are unavailable, even though market data values the holdings at about $293.5 billion. Plaintiffs say they identified the wallets, delivered notice to police, and sent on-chain OP_RETURN notices, then sued only the addresses that did not move funds. The case tests whether blockchain inactivity can prove abandonment, but a court order would not move the coins without private keys. Its main leverage would be as a legal cloud on title against future exchange or custody transfers.
