A New York man, identified in court documents only as Noah Doe, has filed a lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court. He’s asking for legal ownership of 39,069 abandoned Bitcoin wallets—assets he found using a custom algorithm he built himself. He reported the discovery to the NYPD as required by lost and found property law, spent over a year trying to return the wallets to their rightful owners, and only then filed the lawsuit.
The First Amended Complaint, filed on May 1, 2026, under case number 153119/2026 by the Brooklyn-based law firm Lewis & Lin LLC, presents one of the most unusual property cases in crypto’s short legal history. Noah Doe is not a hacker or a thief. Under New York’s Personal Property Law Article 7-B, he argues he’s a finder—and that ownership of the abandoned wallets legally transferred to him after he made every reasonable effort to locate their owners but failed.
How He Found the Bitcoin
The story starts in October 2024, when Noah Doe discovered what the complaint calls a security vulnerability in digital wallets. This flaw caused owners to lose access to their funds, leading them to abandon the wallets entirely. In response, he created what the filing calls “the Algorithm”—a set of criteria and methods to identify wallets that meet the legal standard for abandonment: inactive for at least five years, self-custodied (not held by an exchange), and unresponsive during multiple periods of significant Bitcoin price increases, when any reasonable owner would have acted.
Between December 26, 2024, and April 14, 2025, Noah Doe ran his Algorithm and found three separate batches of wallets—1,544 in December, 546 in March, and 39,911 in April—all using his personal computer in New York City. Within days of each discovery, he physically brought a USB drive with the wallet addresses to the NYPD’s 17th Precinct. Officers issued receipts and property invoices, according to the complaint. The NYPD held onto each drive before returning them months later.
A Year of Outreach Before Court
What followed was a thorough, documented effort to return the wallets to their owners—all paid for by Noah Doe himself, per the filing. He hired an independent expert to assess the wallets’ value, which was estimated at less than $10 at the time due to uncertainty about recovery. He also brought in a strategic consulting firm called Salomon Brothers Strategic Advisors Inc., and a separate cyber and blockchain expert to independently confirm the wallets existed on the blockchain and had been inactive for at least five years.
In late June 2025, the blockchain expert sent an OP_RETURN message—a way to insert a token into a wallet’s transaction record—to every single found wallet. The message directed holders to an abandonment notice webpage hosted by Salomon Brothers, giving them 90 days, until October 10, 2025, to claim ownership. A global press release followed on August 7, reaching an estimated 820 media outlets across 37 countries and up to 225 million people through direct and secondary impressions, according to the complaint. Coverage included CoinDesk, Bitcoinist, Yahoo Finance, and Investing.com. Galaxy Digital also shared a report about the abandonment notice with its clients.
Of the 42,001 total wallets found, 2,932 were later removed—including 424 that took on-chain action to show they hadn’t been abandoned. The remaining 39,069 Bitcoin wallets took no action, and they are the focus of the lawsuit.
The Legal Question
The complaint asks for a declaratory judgment—not damages or criminal charges, but a court ruling that Noah Doe and his two assignee companies, identified as ABC Company and XYZ Company, are the legal owners of the 39,069 abandoned wallets and their contents.Under New York’s personal property law, on December 1, 2025, Noah Doe transferred ownership rights in all but 18 of the wallets to ABC Company. ABC Company then transferred 17.7% of those rights to XYZ Company. All three plaintiffs are involved in the lawsuit.
Related reading: Bitcoin Rally Faces Fresh Test As Demand Metric Hits 2026 Low
This case is a pivotal and truly unprecedented moment for how property law intersects with the emerging crypto sector. A New York court is now being asked to decide whether self-custodied Bitcoin wallets—those that have been inactive for six years or more, discovered through a proprietary algorithm, reported to the police, and subject to a year of documented outreach—qualify as lost property under current New York law. The court must also determine whether the person who found them can legally claim ownership. The outcome could set a legal precedent with implications far beyond this single case.
Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from TradingView.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about the court case deciding ownership of 39069 unclaimed Bitcoin wallets
Beginner Questions
Q What is this court case about
A A judge is deciding who gets to own 39069 Bitcoin wallets that have been inactive for six years The wallets contain a huge amount of Bitcoin that nobody has come forward to claim
Q Who is trying to claim these Bitcoins
A Typically its a company or group that found the wallets and is asking the court to legally give them ownership since the original owners disappeared
Q Why havent the original owners claimed them
A The owners likely lost their private keys forgot about the wallets or passed away without telling anyone After six years of no activity the court considers them abandoned
Q How much is 39069 Bitcoin worth
A It depends on the current price of Bitcoin At recent market prices its worth several billion dollars
Q Can I claim one of these wallets
A Probably not This case is about a specific identified group of wallets The court is deciding between the finder and the government not the general public
Advanced Questions
Q What legal principle is the court using to decide this case
A It usually involves escheatment laws or finderskeepers laws
Q What happens if the court rules the Bitcoins belong to the government
A The government would seize the wallets and likely auction them off similar to how they handle other unclaimed or confiscated assets The money would go into a public fund
Q What happens if the court rules for the company that found them
A The finder would gain legal ownership and control of the 39069 wallets They could then transfer the Bitcoin to their own wallets or sell it
Q How did the finder prove they found specific unclaimed wallets
A They likely presented evidence like old hard drives server logs or records showing the wallets were created years ago and