A lawsuit has been filed in a New York court seeking ownership of more than 39,000 dormant bitcoin wallets. David Schwartz (데이비드 슈워츠), a former chief technology officer at Ripple, criticised it.

Blockchain outlet BeInCrypto reported on May 25 that the claimant, identified as Noah Doe (노아 도), asked the court to recognise legal ownership of wallets holding a total 3.79 million BTC.

The lawsuit was filed with a New York court in May 2026. It targets wallets believed to be owned by Satoshi Nakamoto, early miner addresses, holdings tied to Casascius coins, and wallets linked to hackers and unidentified entities. At current bitcoin prices, the notional value amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars.

The claimant said the wallet addresses were reported to the New York Police Department and that on-chain notices and media notices were sent to potential owners. Questions were raised over whether such notices actually reached wallets holding funds. The difficulty of identifying ownership of early bitcoin wallets was also highlighted again.

Schwartz mocked the lawsuit on X, formerly Twitter. After a user wrote that a court might someday issue such a "stupid ruling" but it would have little real effect, Schwartz agreed and cited one exception. He wrote briefly: "Bitcoin SV (BSV) would recognize it."

Bitcoin SV is a fork chain linked to Craig Wright and has faced criticism that its governance is more open to external legal pressure. Wright has also continued to assert rights based on court orders in disputes over BTC-related assets and intellectual property.

Such rulings would be difficult to enforce immediately on the bitcoin network. Bitcoin is structured without a central authority that can forcibly transfer ownership. Independent node operators around the world maintain the protocol, leaving no entity that can change network rules to match a court order. Specific conditions would be required to move the dormant bitcoin targeted by the lawsuit. Private keys would need to be seized through existing legal procedures, but those conditions do not apply to the core wallets in this case.

The lawsuit largely tests whether massive early bitcoin holdings can be legally attributed. Still, it is difficult to determine the actual owners of early addresses, including Satoshi-linked wallets, and there is no way to carry out forced transfers at the network level. That makes it likely that any ruling and actual movement of assets will remain separate.

BSV might honor it.