Bitcoin Wallet Movement Amid Legal Dispute
A Bitcoin wallet that had sat idle since March 2011, containing 35.55 Bitcoins valued at around $2.54 million, made a move earlier this week. This transaction marks one of the initial public reactions from a named defendant in a New York state lawsuit that aims to establish legal ownership over 39,069 dormant Bitcoin wallets.
The wallet, 1LwWtSs7tMCwcRczQd5kVMv3xpWw6w4Sxe, transferred 15 BTC to a new address while retaining 20.55 BTC as recorded in transaction b90755b on June 2 at 16:46 UTC, according to data from mempool.space.
The initial Bitcoin was received on March 27, 2011, when its price was below $1.
The lawsuit, filed under index number 153119/2026 in the New York County Supreme Court on March 11, 2026, and amended on May 1, includes a pseudonymous plaintiff named Noah Doe and two Wyoming LLCs—ABC Company and XYZ Company—that claim conveyance rights.
The plaintiffs are pursuing ownership of about 3.8 million Bitcoins valued at roughly $285 billion, citing Article 7B of New York’s Personal Property Law, which addresses lost property. Noah Doe is being positioned as the “finder” based on the abandoned property doctrine.
The court accepted the defendant’s on-chain service via an OP_RETURN message, which allows users to permanently include short texts or URLs in Bitcoin transactions.
Noah Doe, a blockchain consultant with Salomon Brothers Strategic Advisors, executed 98 batches of small transactions across Bitcoin blocks 950,446 to 950,576 in June and July 2025. Each included 546 satoshis linked to abandonment notices. The 1LwWt wallet was delivered on July 31, 2025, initiating a 90-day response period.
Alex Thorne from Galaxy Research spotlighted the wallet movement on Tuesday, identifying it as defendant #38215. He remarked, “Apparently they weren’t actually abandoned.”
This transaction came about seven months after the end of the 90-day response window, roughly three months post the formal lawsuit filing. Analysis from Galaxy indicates that many wallets moved their funds during the initial notification period, thereby being excluded from the ultimate list of defendants.
The movement of 1LwWt occurs amidst an ongoing lawsuit involving named wallet defendants, representing one of the first public actions tied to the case.
In a related development, another dormant wallet, 1CDSyXAQxro4FPUoqAQb81642ruqDsUiNp, which had not been active for 15 years, transferred 20 BTC (approximately $1.48 million) to a SegWit address just about 13 hours before the 1LwWt transaction. Data from Arkham Intelligence reveals that 1CDSy also received its original Bitcoins around the same time in 2011 but wasn’t part of Noah Doe’s notifications or any litigation.
This activity coincides with a Bitcoin selloff that has seen BTC rise to nearly $70,000 after weeks of fluctuations. Factors such as Strategy Inc.’s highlighted Bitcoin sale, a noteworthy record of 10 continuous sessions of spot ETF outflows, and stalled negotiation efforts between the US and Iran have also impacted the market.
Coins from the Satoshi era were acquired before Bitcoin reached significant dollar valuations, suggesting that selling now could yield massive profits compared to their initial cost.
