A bitcoin wallet that has sat untouched since 2011 moved all of its roughly 75 BTC, worth about $5 million, CoinDesk reported on Friday, November 13. The wallet is listed as defendant No. 3,419 in a New York lawsuit that seeks a court declaration of ownership over bitcoin in 39,069 addresses that have been dormant for at least five years.
The case was brought by a plaintiff identified only as “Noah Doe” and two Wyoming companies. It targets roughly 3.8 million BTC, including coins attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, and argues that long-dormant wallets hold lost property claimable under New York law. CoinDesk’s headline cites a $260 billion figure, while its earlier coverage in June used $285 billion, so the claimed value shifts with the bitcoin price.
According to CoinDesk, the court allowed the plaintiffs to notify unknown holders by sending tiny bitcoin payments carrying links to the legal papers. This wallet received 546 satoshis on May 22 with a message reading “COURT-ORDERED LEGAL NOTICE,” plus three other small deposits. On Thursday evening, someone with the keys combined all six inputs into a single transaction and sent the coins to a new address, where they remained as of Friday evening.
The transaction does not reveal who controls the wallet or whether the lawsuit prompted the move. CoinDesk also noted that even a plaintiff victory would not hand over the private keys needed to spend the coins, and that a hired expert valued the so-called found wallets at less than $10 each because recovery is uncertain.
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